📜 Publication

• Lin, X., Hui, E. C., Cong, Zhenglong, and Shen, J. Solving Coordination Failures: Collective Land Transfer Rights and Rural Entrepreneurship. Journal of Development Economics 178, 1 (2026), 103609
  Abstract

  This study explores whether strengthening communal land rights can address coordination failures caused by fragmented land tenure. Based on China's ambitious land reform that permits rural collectives to directly sell or rent their construction land to enterprises, we discover that collective land transfer rights boost rural entrepreneurship by 25%. This positive firm growth is entirely concentrated in regions where collective coordination is simpler to achieve (i.e., less rugged areas and regions with denser clan networks). We identify two specific pathways behind the entrepreneurial growth: lower land use costs for firms and increased land wealth for local residents. The reform also facilitates expansion into non-farm wage employment, mainly due to more active participation in the labor market rather than via a decline in the agricultural sector. Our findings emphasize the importance of communal rights and collective negotiation in reducing coordination costs and offer new insights into promoting rural development in developing countries.
• Cong, Zhenglong, Cao X, Yuan C. Evaluating the Impact of Resource-Exhausted Cities’ Supporting Policies: Insights From Population Settlement. Population, Space and Place 31, 8 (2025), e70126
  Abstract

  Resource‐exhausted cities grapple with an amalgam of challenges such as economic decline, substantial unemployment, and pressing environmental crises, posing a global conundrum. Population settlement is a cardinal driver of economic growth; hence, strategies to retain inhabitants are quintessential for the transformative growth of these cities. Leveraging a panel data set spanning 2003–2019 of Chinese county‐level jurisdictions, this study employs the staggered difference‐in‐differences (DID) model to discern the implications and underlying mechanisms of the resource‐exhausted cities' supporting policies (RECSP) on employment rates and population inflows. The findings indicate that the RECSP improves regional employment rates and population inflows, with enhanced environmental quality, refinement of public services, manufacturing shifts, and industrial upgrades being the primary mechanisms. Notably, the effects of RECSP on population settlement are more pronounced in regions with centralized heating and in the Northeast. Furthermore, mining cities witnessed a more substantial surge in employment rate, while forestry‐based cities registered a marked population inflow. The results underscore the imperativeness of amplifying support to resource‐exhausted cities, advocating for urban industrial metamorphosis, enticing population inflows, enhancing employment rates, and thereby catalyzing diversified and sustainable economic evolution.

📜 Published in Chinese

• Liu, Q., Zheng, S., and Cong, Zhenglong. The impact of international collaboration on research output of chinese university:evidence from visiting scholar program of economics. China Economic Quarterly 25, 01 (2025), 137–154. (Chinese: 刘庆丰,郑世林,丛正龙.国际合作交流对中国高校教师科研产出的影响——来自经济学科海外访学的证据.《经济学(季刊)》)
• Ni, C., Shao, B., Cong, Zhenglong*, and Wang, Z. Impact of age-friendly community renovations on the elderly’s health. Chinese Journal of Population Science 38, 05 (2024), 113–128. (Chinese:倪晨旭,邵宝魁,丛正龙*,王震.社区适老化改造对老年人健康的影响.《中国人口科学》)