Selected papers on trade, economic history, and economic policy, with a focus on East Asia.
Published:
Argues that Ming China’s demand for silver, driven by the silverization of its tax system, was the organizing force behind the first global trade network, not European navigation. Tracing silver from Potosí and Iwami Ginzan to Chinese markets, it shows how the price gap between China and the rest of the world set the direction and timing of global silver flows.
Published:
Argues that the U.S. housing affordability crisis is a supply problem and that rent control treats the symptom rather than the cause. Using St. Paul and Minneapolis as a natural experiment, it shows how St. Paul’s 2021 rent control ordinance coincided with a collapse in new construction while Minneapolis kept building.
Published:
Examines how the second Trump administration’s tariffs, export controls, and pressure on Chinese tech and financial firms reshaped U.S.–China economic relations, and how Japan responded with restraint, regional trade diplomacy, and semiconductor investment to quietly advance its own strategic and economic interests.