Tao (Louie) Clovis Xu Dec 2024

TX 

Tao Louie Xu, M.Sc. 許韜
(he/they)
Graduate School of Social and Political Science
The University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh EH8 9LD
Scotland, U.K.
Email: tao.clovis.xu[at]outlook[dot]com
[CV] [LinkedIn] [ORCID] [RePEc]

About Tao

Rerum cognoscere causas within the world of international and urban development, a driven and motivated individual preparing my PhD application, graduating with a highest distinction from NUFE and a merit from the University of Edinburgh. With extensive professional and academic experience gained from CITIC, Mazars, Deloitte, HQSW, DKU, NUFE, NJU, SUFE, and several public organisations, possessing exceptional analytical skills, a clear understanding of the multidimensional nature of development, and a proven track record of thriving in very pressurised and challenging environments. Committed to continuous personal development, and seeking more professional challenges to apply my knowledge and a transferable skill set, nec temere nec timide.
     Tao is involved in a range of research on heterodox economics of development & structural change, political economy of urban and international development, new structural economics, political settlements framework, industrial policy, transport infrastructure policy in urban regeneration & development, entrepreneurship, and social policy. To conduct people-first research around inequality and poverty, an odyssey is to engage the most and least represented samples from localities with diverse formal and informal institutions. From Suzhou, Nanjing to Edinburgh as well as around over 20 countries, Tao is travelling and studying in the Economics of Urban and International Development towards a Ph.D. degree and more. They advocate for a more diverse and inclusive world, with a desire to use their knowledge to support more individuals and groups for self-actualisation.

Education

  • M.Sc. Development Studies (International Development Studies, Merit)  University of Edinburgh

      Dissertation: The Road Not Taken? Industrial Policy and Political Settlements in China and Indonesia 1990–2022
      Supervisor: Hazel Gray, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer in African Studies & International Development
      Key Modules: Anthropology of International Development; Politics and Theories of International Development; Research Design & Practice; Resource Politics and Development; Interpreting Development Institutions & Practices; Governance, Development and Poverty in Africa; Key Skills in Development Practice

  • B.Sc. Economics (Commercial Economics, 1st: 91.29)  Nanjing University of Finance & Economics

      Dissertation: Towards Sustainable Prosperity? Policy Evaluation of Jiangsu Advanced Manufacturing Clusters
      Supervisor: Yabei Hu, Ph.D., Professor of Industrial Economics
      Key Modules: Microeconomics; Macroeconomics; Econometrics; Industrial Economics; International Economics; Regional & Urban Economics; Regional Market and Interregional Trade; Platform Economics; Business Economics; Economics of Business Enterprise; Economic History; Management Studies; Business Design & Innovation; Retailing and Wholesaling Studies; Marketing; Procurement & Supply Chain Management

Honours & Awards: Jiangsu Provincial Government Scholarship for Overseas Studies, Jiangsu Provincial Distinguished Dissertation Award 1st Class, NUFE Principal’s Scholarship, NUFE Honours Graduate, NUFE Distinguished Dissertation Award, NUFE Honours Student, NUFE Outstanding Student Leader Award, NUFE Merit Scholarship for Academic Excellence, NUFE Merit Scholarship for High Calibre

Skills, Courses & Certifications: IELTS Academic C1, NCRE L2 (Excel Access Publisher Canva), Text Analytics & Econometrics (Stata NVivo VOSviewer ArcMap Matlab CiteSpace), Understanding Research Methods @SOAS, Game Theory @UBC & Stanford, Korean Economic Development @Yonsei, Local Economic Development @EUR, Microeconomics of Health Care Delivery & Comparative Health Systems @UPenn, Health Systems Development & Epidemiology @UNC Chapel Hill & Imperial College London, New Structural Economics & Behavioural Economics & Advanced Quantitative Social Research @Peking University & Central University of Finance and Economics

Summer/Winter Schools, Workshops & Seminars

  1. Jul 2023 – 2024  Wuhan University, Marxian Political Economy, Adv/Grad, Prof Shaodong Zhou [Certificate-Distinguished Paper Award]

  2. Jul 2024  University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Economics of AI, Adv, Prof Yongmiao Hong [Certificate]

  3. Aug 2023  Nanjing Agricultural University, Research Methodology in Applied Economics, Adv, Prof Funing Zhong [Certificate]

  4. Aug 2023  Nanjing Normal University, Big Data Analytics in GISciences, Adv, Prof Xueying Zhang [Certificate-Outstanding Student Award]

  5. Jan 2022  UCLA & University of Saint Joseph, International Business Management, Prof David French [Certificate-Excellent A]

  6. Mar 2024  Edinburgh CAS, Landlord State and Precarious Urban Agriculture in Accra, Prof Dzodzi Tsikata

  7. Nov 2023  Edinburgh CAS, Political Economy of Extractivist Development in Ghana, Dr Gertrude Torvikey

  8. Sept 2023  Edinburgh CAS, Global Politics of African Identity: Pan-Africanism & Afropolitanism, Dr Farai Chipato

Honours & Awards: NNU Outstanding Student Award, WHU Outstanding Student Award, WHU Distinguished Paper Award

Publications

  1. "Towards Sustainable Prosperity? Policy Evaluation of Jiangsu Advanced Manufacturing Clusters,"
    with Yabei Hu*, honoured by Jiangsu Provincial Distinguished Award
    Technology in Society, 2024, 77, 102583  [PDF]

      2. The government of China, to hone manufacturing's competitive edge, has adopted a series of regional industrial policies to stimulate advanced manufacturing clusters as facilitators of agglomeration effects, utilisers of factor endowments, and implementers of innovation solutions, by playing the role of facilitating state. Focusing on advanced manufacturing cluster policies in East China's Jiangsu Province, the research employs a mixed data analysis methodology on a sample of 52 documents collected from the Jiangsu government and affiliated units. The policy orientations and priorities are examined under the triple analytical framework in terms of themes, instruments, and controls, applying textual mining and the PMC index model. The results reveal the alignment of policy themes with high-quality development strategy, the government preferences for the supply dimension in policy instruments, the emphasis on planning directive in policy controls, together with the relatively high internal consistency of the AMC policy toolkit by Jiangsu. Therefore, the research spotlights the importance of leveraging comparative strengths based upon the facilitating state institution, and of deploying internally coherent, scientific, and efficient initiatives that exploit more potential of advanced manufacturing clusters to foster sustainable prosperity from the perspective of new structural economics.

Work in Progress

  1. "When Polanyi Met Schumpeter: Social Trust and Entrepreneurship,"
    with Weiwei Zhu*, MPRA 123894, 2025  

  2. "Economic Growth, Poverty Mitigation, and Social Policy in our Neoliberal Era: A Polanyian Perspective,"
    ResearchGate 385654163, 2024  

  3. "The Third Way: Reinterpreting the Political Settlements Framework with Structuration Theory,"
    SocArXiv nmvhq, 2024

  4. "The Road Not Taken? Industrial Policy and Political Settlements in China and Indonesia 1990–2022,"
    supervised by Dr Hazel Gray, UoE PGSP11291 s2475073, marked as Dissertation of Distinction, 2024

  5. "It Takes Three to Ceilidh: Pension System and Multidimensional Poverty Mitigation in China,"
    with Yansong Wang*, and Cheng Yuan, arXiv 2411.02807, 2024  [PDF]

  6. "Peasant Life in Changing China: Rural Pension System Reform and Social Insurance Participation,"
    with Zhengyi Hu, advised by Dr Yongliang Wu, arXiv 2204.00785, 2022

  7. "The e-CNY as a Cure for Small and Medium Enterprise Financing Obstacles? Based on Modelling and Simulation of Evolutionary Game Dynamics,"
    with Yansong Wang*, ChinaXiv 202207.00004, 2022

Reports, Presentations & Book Reviews

  1. "The Polanyi Critique and Bolivia's Water Wars," 2024, Edinburgh

  2. "Transformative Communication in Development Organisation: Strategic Engagement and Celebrity Influence," MediArXiv 8kabz, 2024, Edinburgh

  3. "Good Governance and Political Settlements in Africa and Beyond," 2024, Edinburgh

  4. "Turbulence and Order in Economic Development: Economic Transformation in Tanzania and Vietnam by Hazel Gray," 2024, Edinburgh

  5. "To Rebel, or Not to Rebel? People First Anthropology in Development Praxis," 2024, Edinburgh

  6. "Just Transition? Free, Prior, and Informed Consent in Resource-Driven Development," 2023, Edinburgh

  7. "Belt of Productivity, Road to Equality: China's Infrastructure Initiative as the 'People First' Development in Indonesia," 2023, Edinburgh

  8. "Having People, Having Heart: Charity, Sustainable Development, and Problems of Dependence in Central Uganda by China Scherz," 2023, Edinburgh

  9. "Common Prosperity and the Middle Class," WHU Proceedings of the Summer Institute on Marxian Economics, 2023, 4, 1–5, Wuhan, honoured by WHU Distinguished Award

  10. "The Theory of Economic Development by Joseph Schumpeter," 2022, Nanjing

  11. "Frontiers and Evolution of Employment Studies in China," with Weiwei Zhu, advised by Prof Dr Wenwu Zhang, 2021, MPRA 112908, Nanjing

  12. "Survey on Local Pharmaceutical Specialty Stores: Retail Formats and Elements," with Y Gu, Y Wang, Dapeng Zhu, Wei Li, Zhenyu Zhang, Jingxia Hou, and Yuhan Yang, advised by Prof Jinguo Tao, 2021, Nanjing

  13. "The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau," 2021, Nanjing

  14. "A Study of History by Arnold Toynbee," 2021, Nanjing

  15. "Mismatch and Dysfunction of the Ageing Economy: Digital Transformation in Silver-Hair Industry," with Yukun Gu, Yibo Wang, Yansong Wang, and Qifei Chen, Journal of the Jiangsu Association for Commercial Economics, 2021, 38, 1–9, Nanjing

  16. "Reshaping Silver-Hair Industry with New Retailing: A SWOT-Based Strategy," Journal of the China Federation of Logistics, 2021, 28, 82–85, Nanjing

  17. "Survey on the Ageing Society in Rural Guannan: Consumption, Social Security, and Manufacturing for Silver-Hair Economy," with Y Gu, and Y Wang, advised by Prof Qifei Chen, 2020, Guannan

Employment and Professional Experience

Programme and Competition Experience

    Jun. 2023 – Present  Peer Advisor and Research Assistant, Nanjing University Department of Finance, Social Security and Insurance (502023020068)

    Oct. 2022 – Jun. 2024  Co-Investigator and Research Associate, National Social Science Fund of China Programme, Optimisation of Industrial Ecosystems for Advanced Manufacturing Clusters Based on Producer Services (19BJY109)
    Supervised by Prof Yabei Hu

    May 2020 – Nov. 2020  Research Assistant, Jiangsu Administration for Market Regulation Programme, Customer Satisfaction Evaluation of Tertiary Sector
    Supervised by Prof Yingbao Huo, School of Business Administration