I am an incoming Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University's Center on Contemporary China, housed in the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS). I received my Ph.D. jointly in Political Science and Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in August 2026, and was previously a Predoctoral Visiting Scholar in the Department of Political Science at Columbia University.

I am a comparativist and political economist studying authoritarian regimes, with a focus on China. My research examines how authoritarian incumbents personalize power, manage public acquiescence, and leverage technological progress, as well as the consequences for economic growth and for regime stability and change. Methodologically, I combine theoretical models with empirical methods of causal inference to answer substantive research questions.

Prior to Wisconsin, I received my MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics as a Lee Family Scholar and my Bachelor of Economics and Finance from the University of Hong Kong as an HKU Foundation Scholar. 

My name is pronounced /Ming-Tsong Pan/, and you can reach me via email: mingcong.pan@wisc.edu.