He examined China’s recent environmental reform for his PhD degree at the University of Southern California (USC). Meanwhile, he has been actively involved in two other research projects. Since 2006, he has been collaborating with an international network of scholars, studying how political-institutional environments shape structures and performances of public agencies among OECD countries. Since 2011, with colleagues from the Civic Engagement Initiative at USC, he has also been researching on the social movement of Home Owner Associations (HOAs) in China.