Professor Chen joined Business School at Beijing Normal University in the fall of 2015, soon after he got his Ph.D. degree from Princeton University. He develops game theoretic models and uses empirical methods to analyze incentive problems under authoritarian institutions and broader collective-decision environments. Another co-authored paper by Prof. Chen, “Why Do Authoritarian Regimes Allow Citizens to Voice Opinions Publicly? ” (co-authored with Yiqing Xu) is forthcoming at another top journal, the Journal of Politics. This article studies how an authoritarian government strategically uses public communication platforms to reveal citizens' disagreement with each other so as to reduce their intention to protest against the regime.

Prof. Chen also has several on-going research projects about China or game theoretic study of institutions. One of his co-authored papers “Housing Investment in Urban China: Evidence from Chinese Household Survey” (co-authored with Yujin Cao and Qinghua Zhang) develops a decision theoretic model with several institutional features in China combined with detailed empirical analysis to explain how investors' expected capital gains affect their housing tenure choice. This study offers a new perspective to understand price momentum and dynamics of demand in China's real estate market.