Research Works / 研究
Working Papers / 工作论文
Built environment and mental well-being / 建成环境与居民心理健康
- "Neighborhood public space proximity, quarantine experience, and depression: Evidence from Beijing, China." (with Yuming Fu, Tao Liu, and Xize Wang) | Slides and manuscript are available upon request | Neighborhood public space is an important component of people’s daily lives. Although existing literature has studied the effects of neighborhood public space access on people’s daily well-being, more studies are needed to understand its mental health effects during emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Using survey data from 3,022 residents in Beijing, China, in July 2020, we find that people with quarantine experience are associated with a higher risk of depression. More importantly, we find that access to certain public spaces, namely parks and shopping points of interest (POIs), significantly moderates the quarantine–depression association. In other words, good access to parks and shopping POIs can amplify the adverse effects of quarantine on mental health. Subsample analyses reveal that the magnitudes of such positive moderating effects are larger for those who identify themselves as extroverts. This research aligns with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, highlighting the increasing social concern over mental health, exacerbated by the pandemic. It builds on the “stress process model,” which views public space as both a potential stressor and a psychosocial resource. Our findings suggest a dual role for public spaces: while offering first-order mental health benefits, they can also intensify stressors like quarantine in emergencies. The study underlines the need for public health and urban policy to consider not just the therapeutic aspects of public spaces but also their potential to amplify adverse effects in crises. This nuanced understanding is crucial for designing more resilient urban environments that support mental well-being, especially in extroverts, during future public health emergencies.
- Asian Association for Investors in Non-Listed Real Estate Vehicles (ANREV)-Institute of Real Estate and Urban Studies (IREUS) Research Conference, National University of Singapore, Singapore
- Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) 64th Annual Conference, 2024, Seattle, WA, USA
- The 2nd Global Urban Governance and Policy Conference, 2024, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China
- The 17th International Association of China Planning (IACP) Annual Conference, 2023, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
Land use and urban planning / 土地利用与城市规划
- "Linking neighborhoods to transit: Climate-resilient mobility through sheltered walkways." (with Qiuxia Gao, Kwan Ok Lee, and Shuting Zhang) | Slides and manuscript are available upon request | Cities seeking climate-resilient mobility must shift short trips from motorized to active modes, yet heat and precipitation raise the access cost of walking. Exploiting Singapore’s Walk-to-Ride Programme, we test whether passive, climate-adaptive infrastructure changes travel behavior at the margin. We combine geolocated rollout records of sheltered walkways, high-frequency bus-stop-level origin–destination flows, and three waves of household travel surveys. Motivated by the stylized negative association between surrounding sheltered walkway coverage and short-distance bus feeder trips at the transit hub level, difference-in-differences estimates based on sheltered walkway connection show that sheltered walkway construction increases walking-to-hub access by 9.4 percentage points and reduces short-distance-feeder bus access by 8.6 percentage points. Effects concentrate within 800 meters from transit hubs and intensify during rainfall periods, consistent with lower exposure costs. We also find a 3.3-percentage-point increase in walking in the entire-trip mode choice. Modular, low-cost retrofits along existing rights-of-way can unlock suppressed walking demand and strengthen transit system robustness under a warmer, more precipitation-extreme climate.
- The 6th World Planning School Conference, 2026, Helsinki, Finland (scheduled)
- Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) 65th Annual Conference, 2025, Minneapolis, MN, USA
- The Urban China Research Network (UCRN) 2025 Annual Conference, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
- "High-speed railway station siting and anisotropic urban expansion: Evidence from China." (with Xuewen Li, Wu Xiao, and Jiatong Zhou) | Slides and manuscript are available upon request | High-speed railway investments are promoted as engines of urban expansion, yet existing studies largely focus on average effects and overlook how station siting reshapes the directional structure of urban expansion. This gap is consequential for planning practice, as station locations are largely administratively determined and closely intertwined with land-use regulation. This study examines whether and how HSR stations reorient urban expansion toward specific spatial directions, generating anisotropic growth rather than uniform radial expansion. Using grid-level land development data, we construct directional expansion indicators that capture both alignment with the station direction and the intensity of development. Empirically, we find that following HSR opening, urban expansion becomes significantly more station-oriented. Newly developed areas extend approximately 2.3 to 2.5 km farther toward HSR stations relative to other directions, while directional alignment increases by about 6.1 to 6.3 percentage points. These effects are pronounced around peripheral stations but largely absent for inner-city stations embedded within existing urban cores. Sector-level analyses further show that station-oriented alignment translates into substantial increases in developed land rather than marginal geometric shifts. To interpret these patterns, we develop a spatial equilibrium model that extends the monocentric city framework by introducing an external transport node providing access to external markets. The model predicts directionally differentiated bid rents and outward expansion biased toward the station, mirroring the observed empirical regularities. The findings suggest that HSR stations act as directional anchors of urban growth. For planning practice, they highlight the importance of coordinating station siting with land supply sequencing and zoning controls, particularly in peripheral areas, to manage long-run spatial imbalance and uneven development trajectories.
- The 12th International Workshop on Regional, Urban, and Spatial Economics in China, 2025, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, China
- The 18th International Association for China Planning (IACP) Annual Conference, 2024, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Housing policies / 住房政策
- "Policy-induced re-sorting and congestion in rationed housing markets." (with Cristian Badarinza, Kwan Ok Lee, and Hau Wei Teng) | Slides and manuscript are available upon request | In rationed public housing markets, segmentation can reshape congestion by reallocating applicants across submarkets. We study a reform that imposed extended minimum holding periods and purchase subsidy recovery on advantaged-location public housing in Singapore, which redistributes demand congestion across different segments. Administrative application statistics reveal a 25% congestion decline in previously oversubscribed location segments after the reform implementation. Using a model of segmented search, administrative application data from 2019 to 2025, and a bespoke survey of young-aged households eliciting preference rankings under pre- and post-reform regimes, we reveal stable preference parameters across policy regimes, and find that altered expected payoffs lead nearly 30% of respondents to revise their application choice in response to the government intervention. Further counterfactual exercises attribute approximately 40% of the congestion decline to demand reallocation. These findings show that post-adjustment changes in observed choices need not imply changes in underlying preferences. In rationed housing markets, stable valuations can still generate substantial re-sorting when policy changes segment-level expected payoffs, and this re-sorting can partly explain observed congestion adjustment.
- The American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (AREUEA) – Allied Social Science Associations (ASSA) Annual Conference, 2027, Washington, D.C., USA (scheduled)
- Asian Real Estate Society (AsRES) – Global Chinese Real Estate Congress (GCREC) Joint International Real Estate Conference, 2026, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, China (scheduled)
- The 20th International Association for China Planning (IACP) Annual Conference, 2026, Chang'an University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China (scheduled)
- European Network for Housing Research (ENHR) 2026 Annual Conference, Oslo, Norway (scheduled)
- Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) 65th Annual Conference, 2025, Minneapolis, MN, USA
- Asian Real Estate Society (AsRES) International Real Estate Conference, 2025, Melbourne, Australia
- Asia-Pacific Network for Housing Research (APNHR) 2025 Annual Conference, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
- NUS Institute of Real Estate and Urban Studies (IREUS) – Penn Institute of Urban Research (PIUR) Joint Workshop: Housing & Demographic Dynamics, 2025, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Selected Works In Progress / 正在进行的研究工作
- "When mismatch meets mixed use: Urban land use and passenger-driver outcomes in ride-hailing market." (with Shih-Fen Cheng, Sylvia He, and Kwan Ok Lee) Ride-hailing platforms are increasingly embedded in urban transportation systems, yet their service performance remains sensitive to localized demand-supply imbalances. This study examines how grid-level mismatch is associated with passenger and driver service outcomes, and whether land use diversity moderates these relationships. We distinguish mismatch exposure from spatial vulnerability: mismatch captures the extent of local imbalance, while land use diversity may shape how strongly that imbalance translates into waiting costs. We use proprietary ride-hailing data from a leading ride-hailing service provider in Singapore from September to November 2019. We construct a local demand-supply mismatch index from differences between demand and supply shares, and measure land use diversity using a Gross Plot Ratio-weighted entropy index based on Singapore Master Plan 2019 parcel data. Empirically, we estimate OLS models with high-dimensional spatial and temporal fixed effects and two-way clustered standard errors. The preliminary results show that the mismatch is strongly associated with higher service costs on both sides of the platform. A one-standard-deviation increase in mismatch is associated with a 15.3 percent increase in passenger waiting time and a 5.5 percent increase in driver idle time, conditional on detailed controls. Land use diversity does not significantly predict mismatch exposure once spatial and temporal fixed effects are included. However, it significantly attenuates the association between mismatch and service outcomes: interaction coefficients are negative for both passenger waiting time and driver idle time. These findings suggest that mixed-use urban structure may buffer how localized market frictions translate into platform service costs, highlighting a link between land use planning and two-sided mobility market performance.
“Capacity dividend vs. Perceived negative externalities: A study on the effects of large grid nodes on land and housing markets in China.” (with Xuewen Li and Shaojun Wang)
“Information, expectations, and housing pathways under public housing segmentation.” (with Cristian Badarinza, Kwan Ok Lee, and Hau Wei Teng)