Xiaoshi Zhou

Research

How markets, machinery, and policy shape agricultural productivity

My research asks how farm households respond to changing market access, mechanization opportunities, and public policy. A central theme is how service markets help smallholders overcome scale constraints in modern agricultural production.

Mechanization and Service Markets

Agricultural mechanization, service outsourcing, and productivity

This line of work studies machinery use, custom-hired services, land productivity, maize yields, service expenditure, and non-farm employment. It connects farm-level technology adoption with broader changes in labor allocation and rural transformation.

Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics World Development International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology

Rural Development

Farm households, off-farm work, and rural livelihoods

A second strand examines farm couples' off-farm work decisions, land transfer choices, household energy expenditure, consumption diversity, and rural women's employment. The work emphasizes household behavior under structural transformation.

Applied Economics Energy Policy China Agricultural Economic Review

Policy and Food Systems

Food-system policy, rural industries, and agricultural resilience

Recent Chinese-language work focuses on the Greater Food approach, soybean expansion, agricultural insurance, rural industrial systems, and the policy foundations for sustaining grain production capacity.

World Agriculture Journal of Nanjing Agricultural University (Social Sciences) Agricultural Technology Economics

Methods and Data

Applied microeconometrics for agricultural economics

Across projects, I use household survey data, cross-country panels, policy variation, treatment-effect models, selection correction, and productivity analysis to study causal and behavioral mechanisms in agricultural development.

IPWRA and treatment effects Selection and heterogeneity Productivity and efficiency analysis

Projects

Funded and Commissioned Projects

Research projects I lead or have led, with original grant numbers retained where available.

  1. Production effects and optimal boundaries of coordinated land-scale and service-scale operations in agriculture

    Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Sciences Youth Project

  2. Development pathways and innovation strategies for the low-altitude economy in agriculture

    Enterprise-commissioned research project

  3. Improving Zhejiang's rural employment and entrepreneurship system

    Major Soft Science Project, Zhejiang Rural Revitalization Advisory Committee, ZXWRKT202502

  4. Content systems, delivery modes, and mechanisms for rural entrepreneurship services

    Commissioned project, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, 202404

  5. Fundamental Research Funds for China Agricultural University

    China Agricultural University, 2024TC096

  6. Collective membership rights, homestead land use rights, contracted land management rights, and collective income distribution rights

    Soft Science Project, Central Rural Work Leading Group Office and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, 202206

  7. China's agricultural mechanization model and its effects on farm household income growth and inequality

    Young Scientists Fund, National Natural Science Foundation of China, 72003089

  8. Theoretical framework and policy optimization for resolving rural debt

    Commissioned project, Department of Policies and Reform, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, 202306

  9. Rural survey methods and survey theory

    Commissioned project, Research Center for Rural Economy, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, 202209

  10. China Postdoctoral Science Foundation General Grant

    China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, 2022M720249

  11. China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Special Grant

    China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, 2022T150014

  12. Selective funding for technological innovation by returned overseas scholars

    Nanjing 2020 Returned Overseas Scholars Technology Innovation Program, 202007