Johns Hopkins UniversityEst. 1876
America’s First Research University
David Bulman
Jill McGovern and Steven Muller Assistant Professor of China Studies and International Affairs
About
David J. Bulman is the Jill McGovern and Steven Muller Assistant Professor of China Studies and International Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). His research looks at economic and political development in China and the implications for US-China relations. He focuses on how central-local relations shape political incentives and local economic outcomes, and he analyzes China’s development in a broader comparative lens to provide insights into questions related to growth slowdowns and middle income transitions. Additionally, Bulman’s research analyzes the implications of China’s changing development model for China’s foreign economic behavior and for U.S. foreign policy. His first book, Incentivized Development in China: Leaders, Governance, and Growth in China’s Counties, published by Cambridge University Press in 2016, examined the political foundations of local economic growth in China, focusing on the institutional and economic roles of county-level leaders and the career incentives that shape their behavior.
Previously, Bulman was an Economist at the World Bank and a China Public Policy Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. He was a 2021-2022 Woodrow Wilson Center China Fellow and a 2021-2023 National Committee on U.S.-China Relations Public Intellectual Program fellow, and he was previously a visiting scholar at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center and a University of Chicago and Ford Foundation New Generation China Scholar. Bulman received his MA and PhD in China Studies from Johns Hopkins SAIS and his BA in Economics from Columbia University.
Previously, Bulman was an Economist at the World Bank and a China Public Policy Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. He was a 2021-2022 Woodrow Wilson Center China Fellow and a 2021-2023 National Committee on U.S.-China Relations Public Intellectual Program fellow, and he was previously a visiting scholar at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center and a University of Chicago and Ford Foundation New Generation China Scholar. Bulman received his MA and PhD in China Studies from Johns Hopkins SAIS and his BA in Economics from Columbia University.
- Zombie Jamboree: The Politics of (Creatively) Destructive Firm Support in China (under contract with Harvard University Press)
- “The Outsiders: Evolving Logics of Cadre Rotation in China’s Counties” Journal of Chinese Governance (forthcoming 2025).
- “Foreign Borrowing, Sovereignty, and Public Opinion in the Global South: Traditional Lenders or China?” (with Ning Leng and Kerry Ratigan) Review of International Organizations (forthcoming 2025).
- “Firm’s Source Country or Project Characteristics? Survey Experiments on Preferences for Chinese Investment in the Global South” (with Ning Leng and Kerry Ratigan) The Chinese Journal of International Politics 18(3) (2025): 267–293.
- “When Fear Matters: Varied Foreign Economic Cooperation Preferences in the Face of Conflict” Review of International Political Economy 32(2) (2024): 430–454.
- “Instinctive Commercial Peace Theorists? Interpreting American Views of the US–China Trade War.” Business and Politics 24(4) (2022): 430-462.
- “Picking Losers: How Career Incentives Undermine Industrial Policy in Chinese Cities” (with Xun Yan and Qiong Zhang). Journal of Development Studies 58(6) (2022): 1102-1123.
- “Financial Sustainability of the Belt and Road Initiative Before and After Covid-19,” in David Arase and Pedro Miguel Carvalho (eds.), The Belt and Road Initiative in Asia, Africa, and Europe (Routledge, 2022).
- “‘Common Prosperity’ and China’s State Capitalist Welfare State: Implications for U.S. Policy,” in Lucas Meyers (ed.) Essays on China and U.S. Policy (Washington, DC: Wilson Center, 2022), pp. 101-132.
- “Localism in Retreat? Central-Provincial Relations in the Xi Jinping Era” (with Kyle Jaros). Journal of Contemporary China 30(131) (2021): 697-716.
- “The Economic Security Dilemma in US-China Relations.” Asian Perspective 45(1) (2021): 49-73.
- “Loyalists, Localists, and Legibility: The Calibrated Control of Provincial Leadership Teams in China” (with Kyle Jaros). Politics & Society 48(2) (2020): 199-234.
- “Leninism and Local Interests: How Cities in China Benefit from Concurrent Leadership Appointments” (with Kyle Jaros). Studies in Comparative International Development 54 (2019): 233-273.
- “Transitioning from Low-Income Growth to High-Income Growth: Is there a Middle Income Trap?” (with Ha Nguyen and Maya Eden). Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy 22(1) (2017): 5-28.
- World Development Report 2017: Governance and the Law (Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2017) (co-principal author with Edouard Al-Dahdah, Deborah Isser, Marco Larizza, Luis Felipe López-Calva, Ezequiel Molina, Abla Safir, Siddharth Sharma, and Yongmei Zhou).
- “Good Countries or Good Projects? Comparing Macro and Micro Correlates of World Bank and Asian Development Bank Project Performance” (with Walter Kolkma and Aart Kraay). Review of International Organizations 12(3) (2017): 335-363.
- Incentivized Development in China: Leaders, Governance, and Growth in China’s Counties (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016).
- “Expanded Privilege, Adjusted Risks: Developing Countries and Renminbi Internationalization,” in Carla Freeman (ed.), Handbook on China and Developing Countries (Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2015), pp. 226-251.
- “Growth in China 1978-2008: Factor Accumulation, Factor Reallocation, and Improvements in Productivity” (with Aart Kraay). World Bank Working Paper No. 92552 (2011).
In the News
China’s Anti-corruption Net Has Risk-averse Officials Afraid to Innovate
South China Morning Post, August 17, 2024