“Let us be, first and above all, kind, then honest and then let us never forget each other!”
– Fyodor Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov
If you are an enthusiastic, conscientious, and collegial student pursuing an academic career in the field of public personnel management, organization theory and behavior, Chinese politics, civic engagement, or policy implementation, you may be the perfect fit for Dr. Bo WEN’s research team.
Specifically, primary research themes of my group include:
1. Chinese Local bureaucracy and Street-level Bureaucrats
Currently, I am exploring the potential pitfalls of emerging bureaucratic phenomena, ranging from the civil service reform, a hybrid governance structure characterized by administrative subcontracts and political tournaments, to the evolving challenges faced by local administrations and frontline officials in implementing centrally mandated directives.
2. Participatory and Collaborative Governance
I am investigating the role that citizens play in China’s governance. More broadly speaking, I strive to examine how this engagement can be leveraged to break down barriers to effective participation, including the difficulties of reconciling value conflicts, the prohibitively high costs of deliberation, the blurred lines of accountability, and opinion leaders subordinate collaboration to strategy of control, etc.
3. Measurements, Antecedents, and Consequences of Public Service Motivation (PSM)
By virtue of a mixed-method approach, consisting of focus-group interviews, questionnaire surveys, and randomized survey and real-effort experiments, I aim to develop a localized PSM measurement scale that is tailored to the Chinese context, causally pinpoint key non-organizational antecedents of individuals’ PSM, and shed a counterintuitive light on a host of unethical behavioral outcomes stemming from PSM.
4. Regulatory Governance
I analyze the mechanisms and processes through which anti-money laundering (AML), an increasingly used yet largely understudied regulatory and enforcement tool, limits transnational corruption and facilitates international fugitive repatriation and asset recovery for corruption-related crimes. I plan to extend this strand of research to the fields of energy conservation, environmental protection, and green finance.
Eligibility
The ideal candidate possesses the following qualities: (1) proficiency in English (both oral and written), (2) familiarity with Excel and Stata (or R), (3) basic understanding of survey administration and experimental methods, and (4) a strong interest in research demonstrated by coursework achievements or prior experience. Priority will be given to applicants who have solid training in quantitative data (econometrical) analysis and programming skills.
Joining my team will give students abundant opportunities to conduct joint research projects with overseas research teams, publish alongside top-notch scholars, and further their studies at leading U.S. and European institutions (e.g., as postdocs).
Contact Information
Please send a letter of introduction via email to bowen@um.edu.mo. In your letter, please include the following information:
- Your name and contact information
- Language ability in English (writing sample required)
- Your most recent CV/resume
- A brief essay that addresses the questions below (one paragraph for each will suffice)
- What are your research interests?
- How are they related to your areas of specialization?
- Tell about any previous research experience.
- Previous experience working with data (please elaborate).
- What are your future career plans?
Bo Wen 