Haoran is an applied micro-economist with a specialisation in empirical policy evaluation and theoretical micro-economic modeling. He completed his ESRC-funded PhD in Economics at Durham University. He is interested in evaluating public R&D policies and their impact on productivity at the firm level in the UK. He is also interested in exploring optimal tax policies for the international digital economy, with a broader focus on the economics of innovation, investment and taxation.

Haoran joined the University of St Andrews as a research fellow. He is working on an ESRC-funded research project titled 'Understanding how constraints on access to finance and under-investment impact on productivity growth in smaller firms'.