Haishi "Harry" Li
Assistant Professor in Economics, HKU Business School, University of Hong Kong
I am currently on sabbatical leave for Fall 2026 and visiting Princeton University
I received my PhD from University of Chicago in 2021. Former postdoctoral fellow at Center for Commerce and Diplomacy, UCSD GPS.
I am a research affiliate at CESifo, HKU Jockey Club Enterprise Sustainability Global Research Institute, and Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality in Asia.
I focus my research on international trade and international macroeconomics, with interests spanning multinational production, trade policy, sanction, emerging technology, and climate change. I develop complex quantitative international trade and macroeconomic models, and take advantage of different empirical settings with exogeneous variations.
Email: haishili[at]hku.hk
Working Papers
Controlling Critical Innovation Inputs: Semiconductors in U.S.—China Technology Competition, with Xiaomei Sui and Sifan Xue
Trade Policy Uncertainty and Supply Chain Disruptions: Firm-Level Evidence from "Liberation Day," with Gustavo De Souza, Ziho Park, and Yulin Wang, SSRN. Revision Requested at Journal of International Economics
Industrial Policy and Retaliatory Protection under the WTO: Lessons from China, with Yusheng Feng, Siwei Wang, and Min Zhu, SSRN
Robots, Tools, and Jobs: Evidence from Brazilian Labor Markets, with Gustavo de Souza, CESifo WP. Revise and Resubmit at Review of Economic Studies
To Comply or Not to Comply: Understanding Neutral Country Supply Chain Responses to Russian Sanctions, with Zhi Li, Ziho Park, Yulin Wang, and Jing Wu, SSRN
Work in Progress
Public Knowledge or Proprietary Innovation? Unintended Consequences of R&D Subsidies on Knowledge Spillovers, with Xuanyi Jin, Gustavo De Souza, and Ziho Park
Accepted and Published Papers
The Employment Consequences of Anti-Dumping Tariffs: Lessons from Brazil, with Gustavo de Souza, Review of Economics and Statistics, May 2026, journal link, SSRN, talk at VITM (video)
Multinational Production and Global Shock Propagation during the Great Recession, Journal of Monetary Economics, January 2026, journal link, SSRN, talk at VITM PhD workshop (video). Winner of the RoWE Young Economists Prize at the 22nd European Trade Study Group (ETSG) Annual Conference
We Are All in the Same Boat: Cross-Border Spillovers of Climate Shocks Through International Trade and Supply Chain, with Alan Xiaochen Feng, and Yulin Wang, Economic Journal, July 2025 (Editor's Choice), journal link (only analysis on the real economy), CESifo WP (longer version studying both real economy and financial market), IMF WP
(Trade) War and Peace: How to Impose International Trade Sanctions, with Gustavo de Souza, Naiyuan Hu, and Yuan Mei, Journal of Monetary Economics, September 2024, journal link, WP, SSRN
The Life-Cycle Dynamics of Exporters and Multinational Firms, with Anna Gumpert, Andreas Moxnes, Natalia Ramondo, and Felix Tintelnot, Journal of International Economics, September 2020, journal link
Hedging House Price Risk in China, with Jia He and Jing Wu, Real Estate Economics, January 2016, journal link
Teaching
China in the Global Economy (HKU Undergraduate Common Core 2025-)
China in the Global Economy (HKU Masters of Economics 2022-)
Topics in International Trade (HKU PhD 2025-)
Intermediate Macroeconomics (HKU Undergraduate 2022-2024; UChicago Undergraduate 2018)
PhD student advising: Yulin Wang (ongoing co-advisor), Tao Tang (ongoing co-advisor)