Professor Lina Song

Dphil (University of Oxford)

Division: Industrial Economics
Centre/Institute: China Research Group
E-mail: Lina.Song@nottingham.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 115 8466217
Location: C40 (South Building, Jubilee Campus)

I started my research career in the early 1980s. As part of a unique organisation called the "Research Group for Studying China's Rural Development", I investigated peasant livelihoods. Our research topics were linked to the country's rural economic reform program. I then worked at the Research Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. In October 1988, I was selected to join a Ford Foundation postgraduate programme in Oxford designated for training outstanding young economists, and subsequently obtained my DPhil in Oxford. Between 1989 and 1999, I worked at the Institute of Economics and Statistics (now renamed as the Department of Economics), Oxford University.

I have worked at the University of Nottingham since November 1999. I am a professor of development economics with a particular focus on labour issues. I have conducted economic and social research on developing countries with reference to China and Sub-Sahara Africa.

My previously funded projects include "New Urban Poverty in China" (DfID); "Poverty, Migration and Public Health" (the Ford Foundation); "Explaining China's Economic Growth with Enterprise Data" (ESRC); and "Economic Inequality and Socio-political Instability in China" (CCK). I am currently the Principal Investigator for the ESRC / DfID funded project with a total grant of £570,000 (contributed by ESRC). And the project is entitled "Local Government, Economic Growth and Human Development: Chinese Lessons for Kenya and Uganda?" I am the Winner of Richard A. Lester Prize for "the Outstanding Book in Labour Economics and Industrial Relations published in 2005" and have published broadly.

I have regularly served as consultant to the international organizations and have advised both Chinese government and British government. I have served on the Editorial Board for China Economic Review since 1st July 2001 (second term) and was a council member for the British Association of China Studies between 2000 and 2004.


Administrative Roles
Divisional Research Director (Industrial Economics)

Current Research Activities
Areas of expertise include the design and conduct of fieldwork, and the use of advanced statistical method (mainly econometrics) to analyse data. My approach to research and teaching is multi-disciplinary, combining economics and sociology with strong application to issues of social and public policy.

I am committed to original data collection, and have led or participated in over 10 field-surveys in China and one in Sierra Leone. These all involve questionnaire design, scientific sampling and quantitative analysis.

I am currently supervising the following Research Students:

Ali Shakil Khan
Fan Zhang
Kilugala Malimi
Kun Bao
Lury Sofyan
Zhiyi Ren

 

Publications from 2005 to the present day

Journal Articles Long, W.; Appleton, S., Song, L. (2017), "The Impacts of job contact network on wages of rural-urban migrants in China: a switching regression approach", Journal of Chinese Economics and Business Studies, Vol.15 (1), 81-101. Appleton, S; Song, L; xia, Q. (2014), "Understanding Urban Wage Inequality in China 1988-2007", World Development, Vol.62, pp. 1-13. Xia, Q., Song, L.. Li, S., Appleton, S, (2014), "The effect of the state sector on wage inequality in urban China: 1988-2007", Journal of Chinese Economics and Business Studies, Vol.12 (1), pp. 29-45. Guariglia, A; Liu, X; Song, L. (2011), "Internal finance and growth: microeconmetric evidence on Chinese firms", Journal of Development Economics. Appleton, S; Song, L; Xia, Q. (2010), "Growing out of poverty: trends and patterns of urban poverty in China 1988-2002", World Development. Appleton, S; Knight, J; Song, L; xia, Q. (2009), "The Economics of Communist Party Membership: the curious case of rising numbers and wage premium during China's transition", World Development, Vol.4, pp. 50-68. Knight, J; Song, L; Gunatilaka, R. (2009), "Subjective well-being and its determinants in rural China", China Economic Review, Vol.20 (4), pp. 635-649. Xia, Q; Song, L; Knight, J; Appleton, S. (2009), "State ownership Reform in 1990s and its Impacts on Chinese Urban Market", Journal of Chinese Economics and Business Studies, Vol.4, pp. 50-68. Zu, L; Song, L. (2009), "Determinants of managerial values on corporate social responsibility: evidence from China", Journal of Business Ethics, Vol.88 (1), pp. 105-117. Appleton, S; Song, L. (2008), "Life Satisfaction in urban China: components and determinants", World Development, Vol.36 (11), pp. 2325-2340. Song, L; Appleton, S and Knight J, (2006), "Why do girls in rural China have lower school enrollment?", World Development, Vol.34 (9), pp. 1639-1653. Appleton, S; Song, L; Xia, Q, (2005), "Has China crossed the river? The evolution of wage structure in urban China during reform and retrenchment", Journal of Comparative Economics. Song, L; Appleton, S. (2005), "The Entitled versus the Unentitled: An Investigation into Government Interventions of Job-search in China", Vol.2 (3), pp. 167-188. Books Knight, J; Song, L, (2005), Towards a labour market in China, Oxford Press. Chapters in Books Song, L, (2014), "Urban Wages in China", in Oxford Companion to the Economics of China, pp. 230-234, Oxford University Press. Song, L; Appleton, S. (2008), "The Myth of the "New Urban Poverty"? Trends in Urban Poverty in China, 1988-2002", in Urban Chna in Transition, 48-65, Blackwell Publishing. Song, L; Appleton, S. (2008), "Social Protection and migration in China: What can protect migrants from economic uncetainty?", in Migration and social protection in China, 138-152, World Scientific. Knight, J; Song, L. (2007), "China's emerging wage structure, 1995-2002", in Inequality and Public Policy in 2002. Knight, J; Li, S; Song, L. (2006), "The rural-Urban Divide and the Evolution of Political Economy in China", in Human Development in the Age of Globalization, Edward Elgar.