My research interests fall broadly in the area of social stratification and mobility, labor markets and economic sociology, and social demography. My current research focus on how state socialist and post-socialist institutions have shaped social stratification regimes and changes in social inequality during the transition from state socialism to market capitalism.  

Refereed Articles:
Wu, Xiaogang and Zhuoni Zhang. Forthcoming. "Changes in Educational Inequality in China, 1990-2005: Evidence From the Population Census Data. Research in Sociology of Education

Wu, Xiaogang. 2009. "Voluntary and Involuntary Job Mobility and Earnings Inequality in Urban China, 1993-2000." Social Science Research

Wu, Xiaogang. 2009 "Introduction: Culture, Institution, and Social Stratification: Towards a Comparative Study of Chinese Societies." Social Transformation of Chinese Societies 5: 1-16

Lin, Thung-hong and Xiaogang Wu 2009. "The Transformation of the Chinese Class Structure, 1978-2005." Social Transformation of Chinese Societies 5:81-116

Xie, Yu, Qing Lai and Xiaogang Wu 2009. "Danwei and Social Inequality in Contemporary Urban China." Research in Sociology of Work 19: 283-308

Wu, Xiaogang. 2009. "Income Inequality and Distributive Justice: A Comparative Analysis of Mainland China and Hong Kong." The China Quarterly 200(Dec) 1-20.

Xie, Yu and Xiaogang Wu. 2008. "Danwei Profitability and Earnings Inequality in Urban China". The China Quarterly 195 (Sept): 558-81.

Wu, Xiaogang. 2007 "Family Resources and Educational Stratification: The Case of Hong Kong, 1981-2001" Social Transformations in Chinese Societies Volume 3:173-201.

Wu, Xiaogang and Donald J. Treiman. 2007. “Inequality and Equality under Chinese Socialism: The Hukou System and Intergenerational Occupational Mobility.” American Journal of Sociology 113(2):415-45.

Wu, Xiaogang. 2006. “Communist Cadres and Market Opportunities: Entry to Self-Employment in China, 1978-1996.”Social Forces 85 (1): 389-411. Best Research Paper Award (for paper published in 2004-2006), Asia and Asian America Section, American Sociological Association, 2006.

Xie, Yu and Xiaogang Wu 2005. “Market Premium, Social Process, and Statisticism” American Sociological Review 70: 865-70.

Wu, Xiaogang and Donald Treiman. 2004. “The Household Registration System and Social Stratification in China, 1955-1996.” Demography 41(2):363-84.

Wu, Xiaogang and Yu Xie. 2003. “Does the Market Pay Off? Earnings Inequality and Returns to Education in Urban China.” American Sociological Review 68:425-442.

2006, reprinted Pp 142-159 in Modern Classics in the Economics of Education, edited by Clive Belfield, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.

Wu, Xiaogang. 2002. “Work Units and Income Inequality: The Effect of Market Transition in Urban China.” Social Forces 80(3) 1069 –99.

Book Chapters/Others:

Wu Xiaogang. 2009. “Between Public and Professional: Chinese Sociology and the Construction of a Harmonious Society.” Footnotes: A Publication of American Sociological Association May/June Issue http://www.asanet.org/footnotes/mayjun09/intl_0509.html

Wu, Xiaogang. 2009. “Household Registration, Social Exclusion, and Rural Migrants in Chinese Cities.” Pp 29-54 in Socialist China, Capitalist China: Social-Political Conflicts under Globalization, edited by Guoguang Wu and Helen Lansdowne, Routledge.

Wu Xiaogang. 2006. "Family Businesses in China (1978-1996): Entry and Performance", Pp. 40-64 in The Management and Performance of China’s Domestic Private Firms: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives, edited by Anne S Tsui and Yanjie Bian. New York: M.E. Sharpe.

Book Reviews:

2009. Boundaries and Categories: Rising Inequality in Post‐Socialist Urban China. By Wang Feng (publisher: Stanford University Press) Pp xx-xx in China Review

2007. The Structure and Evolution of Chinese Stratification, by Li Yi (Publisher: University Press of America), in Contemporary Sociology 36(2):143-144.

2006. The State and Life Chances in Urban China: Redistribution and Stratification, 1949-1994. by Xueguang Zhou (Publisher: Cambridge University Press), in Social Transformations in Chinese Societies Volume 2 :219-222.

Other Selected Publications (in Chinese):

Bian, Yanjie, Xiaogang Wu and Li Lulu (eds), 2007. Social Stratification and Mobility: New Development on China Studies. Beijing: Renmin University Press.

Wu, Xiaogang. 2006. “Jumping into the Sea: the Labor Markets Transition and Social Stratification in China, 1978-1996.” Sociological Research 《社会学研究》126: 120-146. 

Wu, Xiaogang. 1995. “Occupational Choices and Labor Mobility: The Transition of Chinese Labor Relations since the Economic Reform.” Management World 《管理世界》1995 (3): 204-10. Reprinted in Xinhua Digest 《新华文摘》201: 1995 (9).

See my CV for more information on my on-going research projects.

Links to Data and Research  Link to Methods and Statistics