He holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the Renmin University of China and a doctorate degree in economics from the Johns Hopkins University. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Population Economics. He is on the executive board of the China Association of Labor Economics, is a vice chair of the Committee on Employment Promotion and a vice president of the Labor Market Branch of the China Association of Labor Economics. He is also a Professorial Fellow of UNU–MERIT and a research fellow of the IZA. His main areas of interest are labor economics, applied micro-econometrics, social program evaluation and health economics. His recent research topics on China include child development, rural-urban migration, population aging, technology progress and labor market.