Research Interests
My research anchor on social economics and pull together insights from various disciplines of social sciences such as anthropology, sociology, and management science. While the research interests are wide-ranging, the themes are interconnected: my work on gender, work and organization contextualize identity and culture in specific settings, the reciprocal sheds new light on the complex social interactions shaping economic behavior.
Social Economics
theme
Identity
How one’s self-perception and interaction with other shape individual behavior?
Gender, Work and Economics
theme
Gender and Labor Market Inequality
How to understand gender inequality in the labor market? What are the implications?
theme
Culture
How is culture shaped? What are the impacts on individual behavior?
theme
Gender and Organizations
What are the differences across organizations? What are the impacts on individual career decisions and experience?
Research Projects
project
Beauty Premium in the Labor and Marriage Market
2022–Present
This project applies a mixed-method to examine the physical attractiveness and its effect on labor market outcomes and the marriage market in China. Analysis of survey data explores the impact of one’s physical attractiveness on individual earnings and that of the spouse. Interview data offer details on how physical attractiveness is constructed and understood by the individuals, and the effects on one’s experience and behavior in the marriage market.
project
The Economics of Gender in China: Women, Work and the Glass Ceiling
2018–2021
This is my PhD project, published as a book by Routledge (August 2022). It aims to disentangle the increasingly absence of female business leaders in the world’s largest Chinese state-owned and private enterprises amid economic development.
project
Property, Entrepreneurship and Women’s Entitlement in urban villages of Southern China
2021–Present
This project aims to disentangle the women’s relationship with property in urban villages of Shenzhen, a formerly small fishing town in coastal China that has given rise to the nation’s largest group of self-made female entrepreneurs.
Publications
Sung, Sisi (2022). The Economics of Gender in China: Women, Work and the Glass Ceiling. Routledge.
Qiao, X., Zhong, X., & Sung, S. (2012). Economic Development, Risky Sexual Behavior, and AIDS Epidemics—Theory and Evidence. Frontiers of Economics in China, 7(3), 407-433.
Sung, Sisi (Forthcoming). A New Model for Workplace in the Post-Pandemic Era: Challenges and Opportunities for Women’s Career Development (后疫情时代职场新模式:女性 职业发展的挑战与机遇) in B. H. Liu (ed) China-Germany Series 5: Post-Pandemic Era and Women’s Development (中德论文集5:后疫情时代与妇女发展). China Legal Publishing House (中国法制出版社).