Wang, Dongqin, Minghong Shen and Xiaogang Wu. 2025. “Socioeconomic status and inequalities in early development of non-cognitive skills: Evidence from China”
China Economic Review 95, January 2026, 102586.
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Xiaogang Wu
Director, Center for Applied Social and Economic Research at NYU Shanghai
Yufeng Global Professor of Social Science at NYU Shanghai
Professor of Sociology at New York University
- xw29@nyu.edu
- +86 (21) 20595139
- Office N859
- Full CV
Xiaogang Wu
Director, Center for Applied Social and Economic Research at NYU Shanghai
Yufeng Global Professor of Social Science at NYU Shanghai
Professor of Sociology at New York University
- xw29@nyu.edu
- +86 (21) 20595139
- Room 1204
- Full CV
About Me
Xiaogang Wu is Yufeng Global Professor of Social Science and Professor of Sociology at both New York University and NYU Shanghai, where he also serves as the founding Director of the Center for Applied Social and Economic Research (CASER).
His research and teaching interests include Chinese society, education, inequality and social stratification, social demography, survey and quantitative methods, and urban sociology. Professor Wu is a leading scholar in the study of social stratification and inequality in China. He has published extensively in top international journals, including American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Social Forces, and Demography.
He has also played a central role in developing major survey infrastructures in China and Hong Kong and has served as Chief Editor of Chinese Sociological Review since 2011, advancing the global visibility of Chinese sociology.
Xiaogang Wu is a sociologist whose research focuses on social stratification, education, and inequality in contemporary China and other Chinese societies. His work examines how large-scale institutional changes—such as market reforms, educational expansion, migration, and urbanization—shape patterns of social mobility, class formation, and life chances across generations. By integrating theories of stratification with rigorous quantitative methods and longitudinal data, his research provides important insights into how institutional arrangements, including the household registration (hukou) system, educational institutions, and labor markets, influence inequality and opportunity in rapidly changing societies.
Wu has played a leading role in developing major survey infrastructures for the study of Chinese societies. He has served as the principal investigator of several large-scale data projects, including the Hong Kong Panel Study of Social Dynamics (HKPSSD), the Shanghai Urban Neighborhood Survey (SUNS), and the Beijing College Student Panel Survey (BCSPS). These projects provide widely used datasets for research on social mobility, urban change, education, and family dynamics. His work has been supported by competitive research grants from organizations such as the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, the U.S. National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health.
His work has been supported by competitive research grants from organizations such as the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, the U.S. National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health, and the European Research Council.
In teaching, Wu offers undergraduate and graduate courses on social stratification, Chinese society, and quantitative methods in social science. His teaching emphasizes theoretical rigor, methodological training, and the use of empirical data to understand social inequality. He has supervised and mentored numerous graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who now hold academic positions at leading universities in China and internationally, contributing to the development of a new generation of scholars studying social inequality and social change.
Wu has developed/taught a variety of courses at different levels in both Shanghai and New York over the years, including:
– “Introduction to Sociology” (SOCS-SHU 110)
– “Social Changes in Contemporary China” (SOCS-SHU 270)
– “Inequality and Society” (SOCS-SHU 227)
– “Finding Sociology in Chinese Cities: Shanghai and Hong Kong” (SOCS-SHU 278)
– “Chinese Social Stratification in Comparative Perspective” (SOCS-SHU 388)
– “Social Science Senior Seminar” (SOCS-SHU 401)
– “Social Science Senior Seminar” (SOCS-SHU 402)
– “Seminar on Chinese Society” (SOC-UA 935) (New York)
– “Seminar on Social Stratification” (SOC-GA2137) (Graduate level, New York)
Tang, Minghao, and Xiaogang Wu. “Family background, romantic experience and college students’ realistic attitudes toward love in China.” Social Science Research 134 (2026): 103283.
Liu, Mengyu, Juan Chen and Xiaogang Wu. 2025. “Secure but depressed? Welfare participation and mental health in Hong Kong” Chinese Sociological Review
Zhao, Xiaotong, Jiayu Zhang, Gaoming Ma, and Xiaogang Wu 2025. “Community Social Capital and Early Childhood Social–Emotional Development: The Mediation of Parental Mental Health and the Moderation of Community-Based Parenting Support Programs” Child & Family Social Work
Yin, Jun, Jia Miao and Xiaogang Wu. 2025. “Homeownership and political participation: The case of Hong Kong” Social Science Research https://doi.org/10.
Tang, Minghao, Angran Li, and Xiaogang Wu. 2025. “Meritocratic Myth in Mind? Socioeconomic Backgrounds and Shifting Beliefs about Meritocracy among College Students in China.” Sociology of Education: 00380407251360432.
Yin, Jun, Xiaogang Wu, and Yizhou Ye. 2025. “The mental health consequences of living in crowded housing: evidence from Hong Kong.” Chinese Sociological Review: 1-26.
Xiaogang Wu and Jia Miao 2025. Understanding Inequality in China: The Contribution of the Chinese General Social Survey. Taylor and Francis.
Xu, Duoduo, Xiaogang Wu 2025. Equal opportunity policy and the reverse gender gap in academic achievement: Evidence from a quasi-experiment in Hong Kong. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 101048
Zeng, Donglin, Xiaogang Wu and Jia Miao. 2025. “Risk of exposure to COVID-19 and informal social control in Hong Kong: the mediating role of social cohesion” Social Forces.
Liu Mengyu, Juan Chen, Xiaogang Wu. 2025. “Secure but depressed? Welfare participation and mental health in Hong Kong” Chinese Sociological Review.
王彦蓉、吴晓刚. 2024. “年龄与发育进程问卷（ASQ）系统在中国社会调查中的适用性“, 《当代青年研究》2024年5月 第3期: 50-63.
Xiaogang Wu, Yongjun Zhang and Tianji Cai (eds). 2024. “Computational Social Science: Application in China Studie.” Routledge
Xiaogang Wu, Muzhi Zhou and Man Yee Kan (eds). 2024. “Fertility and Childcare in East Asia Gender Dynamics and Intergenerational Support“, Routledge
Maocan Guo, Xiaogang Wu. 2024. “Heterogeneity, selection, and the policy effect of educational expansion on college graduate earnings in China, 1981–2015.” Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 90, 100912.
Xiaogang Wu, Xin Li, Jia Miao. 2024. “Early Childhood Development and Social Mobility in China.” ECNU Review of Education, 20965311241240479.
吴晓刚. 2023. “中国1953-2020 的人口普查：回顾与展望” 《社会科学杂志》. 第1卷第1期.
Mengyu Liu, Xiaogang Wu, and Juan Chen. 2023. “Income, deprivation, and social exclusion: toward a comprehensive poverty measurement in Hong Kong.” Journal of Asian Public Policy: 1-22.
李晓光、陆瑶、吴晓刚. 2023. “高学历劳动者的教育失配”. 2023年第6期: 122-237.
Xin Li, Xiaoyang Ye, and Xiaogang Wu. 2023. “How college-student academic undermatch affects students: Quasi-experimental evidence on multifaceted student outcomes.” Social Science Research 113: 102896.
Anning Hu, Xiaogang Wu, Tao Chen, and Dongyu Li. 2023. “Family Socioeconomic Status and Chinese College Students’ Premarital Sexual Attitudes and Behavior.” Population Research and Policy Review 42, no. 3: 34.
尚进、吴晓刚. 2023. “ ‘差序格局’的形成及其变迁机制—— 一项基于行动者建模的研究” 《社会学评论》第 12卷第 3 期.
陈伟、吴晓刚. 2023. “宏观阶层结构与主观阶层认同 —— 基于调查实验法的结果”《学术月刊》第 55卷第 4 期
Donglin Zeng, Xiaogang Wu, and Wei Chen. 2023. “Spatial concentration and the social distance of migrants: Evidence from Shanghai.” Chinese Journal of Sociology: 2057150X231152375.
Xiaogang Wu and Maocan Guo 2022. “Who Rises Higher in First Job Attainment? Trends and Patterns of School-to-Work Transition in Hong Kong” chapter 14 in Transition to Adulthood in East Asia, Edited by Chin-chun Yi and Ming-chang Tsai, Sage [in press]
Duoduo Xu, Shuheng Jin, Ngai Pun, Jiao Guo and Xiaogang Wu. 2022. “The Scarring Effect of First Job Precarity: New Evidence from a Panel Study in Hong Kong.“ Work, Employment and Society [accepted]
Donglin Zeng, and Xiaogang Wu.2022. “Neighborhood collective efficacy in stressful events: The stress-buffering effect.” Social Science & Medicine: 115154.
Xu, Duoduo, and Xiaogang Wu.2022. “Separate and unequal: hukou, school segregation, and educational inequality in urban China.” Chinese Sociological Review: 1-25.
Wu, Xiaogang, and Maocan Guo. 2022. “Higher education expansion and the changing college wage premium in Hong Kong, 1976–2016.” Chinese Journal of Sociology 8, no. 1: 3-28.
Hu, Anning, Xiaogang Wu, Dongyu Li, and Tao Chen. 2022. “Cultural Reproduction and Cultural Mobility from a Comparative Perspective: Mechanism-Based Elaboration and Decomposition.” Comparative Education Review 66, no. 2: 253-279.
Jia Miao, Xiaogang Wu. 2022. “Social Consequences of Homeownership: Evidence from the Home Ownership Scheme in Hong Kong“, Social Forces. soac011
Jia Miao, Xiaogang Wu & Donglin Zeng. 2022. “Promoting ageing in place in Hong Kong: neighbourhood social environment and depression among older adults” Journal of Asian Public Policy.
Wu, Xiaogang, Xiaoguang Li, Yao Lu and Mike Hout. 2021. “Two tales of one City: unequal vulnerability and resilience to COVID-19 by socioeconomic status in Wuhan, China” Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 72, 100584
Hu, Anning, Xiaogang Wu. 2021. “Cultural capital and elite university attendance in China” British Journal of Sociology of Education, VOL. 42, NO. 8, 1265–1293
Anning Hu, Xiaogang Wu, Tao Chen. 2021 “Changing subjective wellbeing across the college life: survey evidence from China.” Chinese Sociological Review, 2021, VOL. 53, NO. 4, 409-429
Xu, Duoduo, Xiaogang Wu. 2021. “From political power to personal wealth: Privatization and elite opportunity in post-reform China” Journal of Contemporary China VOL. 30, NO. 132, 993–1013
Guangye He, Xiaogang Wu. 2021. “Family status and women’s career mobility during urban China’s economic transition” Demographic Research 44, 189-224
Zeng, Donglin, Xiaogang Wu and Zhuoni Zhang. 2021. “Residential and industrial enclaves and labor market outcomes among migrant workers in Shenzhen, China” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies: 1-23
Chen, Yunsong, Xiaogang Wu. Anning Hu, Guangye He, Guodong Ju. 2021. “Social prediction: a new research paradigm based on machine learning” The Journal of Chinese Sociology, 8(1), 1-21.
Wu, Xiaogang. 2021. “Covid-19, Partisan Politics, and the Change of American Attitudes toward China: Findings from A National Longitudinal Study in the US.” Journal of Politics and International Affairs. Fall 2021. Vol XXVIII. No.1: 10-17.
Donglin Zeng, Xiaogang Wu. 2021. “Exposure to suicide in residential neighborhood and mental distress symptoms in Hong Kong: Aspatiotemporal analysis” Health and Place, v. 67, January 2021: 102472
Kan, Man Yee., Guangye He., and Xiaogang Wu 2021, “Satisfaction with Family Status and Housework Participation in Modern China”, Kan, M.-Y. and Blair, S.L. (Ed.) Chinese Families: Tradition, Modernisation, and Change (Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research, Vol. 16), Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 65-87.
吴晓刚 2021.“社会凝聚力建设的中国道路” 《中国社会科学报》2021-10-20.
吴晓刚 2021. “数字化赋予社会结构变迁新动力” 《中国社会科学报》2021-08-20， 《新华文摘》2021 年第 20 期 19-20.
曾东林， 吴晓刚， 陈伟 2021. “移民的空间聚集与群体社会距离: 来自上海的证据.” 《社会》2021 年第 5 期.
吴晓刚、李晓光 2021. “中国城市劳动力市场中教育匹配的变迁趋势：基于年龄、时期和世代的动态分析” 《中国社会科学》2021年第2期
李晓光，吴晓刚 2021. “同城异郁：新冠疫情下的性别、阶层与心理健康差异” 《人口与发展》第 27 卷第 6 期.
王琼琼，丁延庆，李欣，吴晓刚，叶晓阳 2021. “低分高录或高分低录,哪个更(不)好?—对高考录取不匹配的效果估计” 《教育经济评论》 6(3): 38-62.
贺光烨、张瑶、吴晓刚. 2021.“教育程度越高，结婚越晚吗？婚姻市场上本地户口的调节作用” 《社会》2021年第2期。
胡安宁、吴晓刚、陈云松 2021. “处理效应异质性分析——机器学习方法带来的机遇与挑战” 《社会学研究》2021第1期：91-114
Anning Hu, Grace Kao, and Xiaogang Wu. “Can greater reliance on test scores ameliorate the association between family background and access to post-collegiate education? Survey evidence from the Beijing College Students Panel survey.” Social Science Research Volumes 88–89, 102425.
Bai, Xue, Zhonglu Li, Juan Chen, Chang Liu, and Xiaogang Wu. “Socioeconomic inequalities in mental distress and life satisfaction among older Chinese men and women: The role of family functioning.” Health & Social Care in the Community 28 (4), 1270-1281
Xiaogang Wu. 2020. Fabricating Transnational Capitalism by Lisa Rofel and Sylvia J. Yanagisako (Publisher: Duke University Press 2019), American Journal of Sociology 126(1):178-180
陈伟、吴晓刚 2020. “房价上涨与城镇居民对地方政府的政绩评价” 《开放时代》294（2020第6期）: 162-180
陈云松、吴晓刚、胡安宁、贺光烨、句国栋 2020. “社会预测：基于机器学习的研究新范式” 《社会学研究》2020年第3期：94-117.
Jia Miao and Xiaogang Wu. 2019 “Subjective wellbeing of Chinese elderly: acomparative analysis among Hong Kong, Urban China and Taiwan” Ageing and Society, 1-22.
Guangye He, Xiaogang Wu 2019. “Foreign Domestic Helpers Hiring and Women’s LaborSupply in Hong Kong.” Chinese Sociological Review 51 (4), 397-420.
Xiaogang Wu. 2019. “Inequality and Social Stratification inpostsocialist China.” Annual Review of Sociology 45, 363-382.