He obtained a Ph.D. in Economics from Tohoku University (Japan) in 2015. He received his B.S. in Mathematics from Sichuan University and M.A. in Management from Tongji University. He was previously a research fellow of JSPS (Japan) (2014-2015). Xu's special interests include urban and regional economics, development economics and economic geography. His research work appears in Journal of Regional Science, and Papers in Regional Science.