Meina Cai

Associate Professor

Political Science and Asian and Asian American Studies

Meina Cai is an associate professor of political science and Asian/Asian American Studies Institute at the University of Connecticut. Her research interests lie in the political economy of development in transition economies. Her current research focuses on land property rights, public finance, rural governance and development in China. She received her Ph.D. in political science and M.Sc in agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Prior to joining UConn, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Her publications appear in World Development, Journal of Peasant Studies, Environmental Research, Urban Studies, Land Use Policy, among others.

Journal Articles

Meina Cai, Jianyong Fan, Chunhui Ye, and Qi Zhang. 2020. “Government Debt, Land Financing, and Distributive Justice in China.” Urban Studies. 58(11): 2329-2347.

Meina Cai, Ilia Murtazashvili, Jennifer Murtazashvili, and Raufhon Salahodjaev. 2020. “Patience and Climate Change Policy: Global Evidence.” Environmental Research 186. 109552.

Meina Cai, Pengfei Liu and Hui Wang. 2020. “Political Trust, Risk Preference, and Policy Support: A Study of Land-dispossessed Villagers in China.” World Development 125. 104687.

Recent Books

Colin Harris, Meina Cai, Ilia Murtazashvili, and Jennifer Murtazashvili. The Origins and Consequences of Property Rights: Austrian, Public Choice, and Institutional Economics Perspectives. Cambridge University Press (Elements series in Austrian Economics). Forthcoming.