Li-An Zhou, Professor at Peking University Guanghua School of Management, ranked first in the Top 600 Most Cited Researchers in Chinese colleges in the field of Humanities and Social Sciences (2006-2018).

Zhou topped the chart for his paper "Governing China's Local Officials: An Analysis of Promotion Tournament Model," which clocked 4,005 citations. The number of citations indicate a paper's academic impact and scope in its field.

The list, based on the citation statistics from Www.cnki.net, the key database for China's academic journals, encompassed the most cited 600 papers in various fields including philosophy, sociology, art, law, politics and ethnology between 2006 and 2018. The result has been released by China Scientific Literature Evaluation And Measuring Research Center.

Zhou, Guanghua's associate dean, Applied Economics Professor and Chair of the Applied Economics Department at Guanghua, has been focusing his research in the fields of political economics, industrial organization and economic transition and development. More than 60 papers penned by him have been published in Leading economics and management publications worldwide. He's known for his pioneering research in officials' promotion incentive and behavior and governance, which has had widespread influence over domestic and overseas academic circles.

Published in 2007, the paper "Governing China's Local Officials: An Analysis of Promotion Tournament Model" systemically analyzes the incentive and governance model for China's local officials, especially its promotion tournament for economic performance. The paper sheds light on the profound relations between this particular Model and China's fast economic development while addressing unique issues. His "promotion tournament theory" provides a new perspective for research on China local officials' incentive and governance, and also offers an explanation for China's economic miracle.

In his 2017 book "Local Government in Transition: Official Incentive and Governance (2nd Edition)", Zhou combined the "promotion tournament theory" with "administrative subcontract", another of his own concept, in order to study political economics with Chinese characteristics. He then put forward the "bureaucratic & economic markets" theory, a unique development model fostered by a promotion tournament based on economic performances. According to Zhou, "bureaucratic & economic markets", pronunciation an integration of political competition among local leaders and market competition Among local firms, lead to a unique form of local competition and government-enterprise cooperation, setting a crucial systemic foundation for China's fast economic growth.

Zhou's theoretic research advances with the times. His "bureaucratic & economic markets" analytical framework has absorbed a multitude of real life examples ranging from the economic decline of NE China, the rise of Optics Valley in Wuhan to the prosperity of Qianjiang crayfish, More ideas for high quality development of China's future economy.

"I've done a lot of theoretic research in the past. I'll focus more on field-based research. Only by going into real life cases can I find out the details and stories hidden behind and explore deeper logics so as to better Tell Chinese stories from the angle of a researcher," said Zhou, who received his BA and MA in Economics from Peking University and his Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University.