Prof Duoduo Xu
Assistant Professor
3917 2062
9.05, 9/F., The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus
Duoduo Xu (許多多) is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Hong Kong (2019-present). She also held joint appointments at the Department of Geography and the Faculty of Arts from 2019 to 2023. Before joining HKU, she was Research Assistant Professor of Social Science and Junior Fellow of Institute for Advanced Study at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (2017-2019).
In 2017, Xu received her PhD in Social Science from HKUST, where she was also trained at the Center for Applied Social and Economic Research (CASER). She completed her MPhil in Social Science at HKUST in 2013 and BA in Sociology at Shandong University in 2011.
Xu’s research interests center on social stratification and inequality, and lie at the intersection of urban sociology, sociology of education, and sociology of work. In particular, she is interested in understanding:
how social-spatial factors (e.g. migration, segregation, location) shape urban residents' attitudes, behaviors, and life chances;
the impacts of various family, school and neighborhood factors on children’s educational and developmental outcomes;
young people’s experiences of school-to-work transition, precarious employment and labour market mismatch.
Xu’s studies are mainly concerned with child development and youth employment issues in Chinese cities (e.g., Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing), and she draws on various longitudinal survey datasets and a range of quantitative methods for causal inference. Currently, she is working on multiple research projects, including:
Skill Requirements of Job Ads during an Economic Recession in Hong Kong: A Machine Learning Approach to Studying Labour Market Mismatch
Educational Expansion, College Premium and Social Mobility: A Comparative Study of Hong Kong and Taiwan Youth (funded by RGC-ECS)
Socioeconomic Segregation, School Choice, and Geography of Educational Inequality in Hong Kong (funded by RGC-GRF)
Ph.D.
Social Science, Hong Kong University of Science & TechnologyM.Phil.
Social Science, Hong Kong University of Science & TechnologyB.A.
Sociology, Shandong UniversitySocial Stratification and Mobility
Migration and Immigration
Urban Sociology
Sociology of Education
Child and Youth Development
Survey and Quantitative Methods
Grants
PI, “Tracking Effect or Selection Effect? Social Origin, Track Choice, and Status Attainment in China”, HKU Seed Fund for Basic Research (109000256, HK$79,000, 2023-2025)
PI, “Educational Expansion, College Premium and Social Mobility: A Comparative Study of Hong Kong and Taiwan Youth,” Hong Kong Research Grant Council Early Career Scheme (ECS) (27604821, HK$ 610,312, 2022-2024).
PI, “A Broken Social Ladder in Hong Kong and its way out: The Panel Survey of the Youth’s Job and Income Mobility between 2011 and 2019,” Oxfam Hong Kong Project (20034-HKG-A1094-01-2020A-H21, HK$171,288.40, 2020-2021)
PI, “The Over-educated Generation: College Expansion and Social Mobility in Hong Kong and Taiwan,” HKU Seed Fund for Basic Research (104005605, HK$ 150,000, 2020-2021)
PI, “Socioeconomic Segregation, School Choice, and Geography of Educational Inequality in Hong Kong,” Hong Kong Research Grant Council General Research Fund (GRF) (16600218, HK$ 599,440, 2019 – 2021).
PI, “Migration, Risk Preference, and Entrepreneurship in Urban China: A Mixed-methods Study,” HKU Start-up Fund, (006029001, HK$ 506,497, 2019-2022).
PI, “Education, Location, and School Choice in Hong Kong,” HKUST Initiation Grant (IGN17HS02, HK$ 100,000, 2017-2019).
Co-I, “Early Childhood Development in Hong Kong: A Longitudinal Study”, HKU Seed Fund for Collaborative Research” (PI: Dr. Ming Wen, HK$599,932, 2023-2026).
Co-PI, “Neighbourhood Factors and Social Integration of Diverse Hong Kong Families in the Time of COVID-19: An Extension of the Hong Kong Panel Study of Social Dynamics (HKPSSD) [HKPSSD-D],” Hong Kong Research Grant Council Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) (PI: Dr. Lucy Jordan, HK$1,926,870, 2022-2023).
Co-I, “Consultancy Study on Considerations and Difficulties of Women in Choosing Whether or Not to Work,” Consultancy Project, Labour and Welfare Bureau, HKSAR (PI: Dr. Lucy Jordan, HK$3,369,405, 2020-2021).
2023 Best Paper Award, Hong Kong Sociological Association
2016 Kerckhoff Award, Research Committee on Social Stratification and Mobility (RC28), International Sociological Association (ISA)
2015 Oversea Research Award, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
*: Xu is the corresponding author
#: post-doc/student coauthor
Xu, Duoduo* and Xiaogang Wu. 2025. "Equal Opportunity Policy and the Reverse Gender Gap in Academic Achievement: Evidence from A Quasi-experiment in Hong Kong." Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 97:1010-48.
Song, Xinmiao# and Duoduo Xu*. 2024. “More Graduates, Fewer Skills? Vocational Education Expansion and Skilled Labour Shortages in China.” The China Quarterly, 260:970-985.
Xu, Duoduo*, Jiao Guo#, Karen Ka Han Li#, and Lucy P. Jordan. 2024. “Who Cares? Childcare Support and Women’s Labor Supply in Hong Kong.” Chinese Sociological Review, 56(1): 30-62.
Xu, Duoduo*, Shuheng Jin#, Ngai Pun, Jiao Guo#, and Xiaogang Wu. 2024. “The Scarring Effect of First Job Precarity: New Evidence from a Panel Study in Hong Kong.” Work, Employment and Society, 38(1): 206-25.
Xu, Duoduo* and Xiaogang Wu. 2022. “Separate and Unequal: Hukou, School Segregation, and Educational Inequality in Urban China.” Chinese Sociological Review, 54(5), 433-457.
Jin, Shuheng#, Tianzhu Nie#, Ngai Pun, and Duoduo Xu*. 2022. “Spatial Mismatch, Different Labor Markets and Precarious Employment: The Case of Hong Kong.” Social Indicators Research, 161(1): 51-73.
Xu, Duoduo* and Xiaogang Wu. 2021. “From Political Power to Personal Wealth: Privatization and Elite Opportunity in Post-Reform China.” Journal of Contemporary China, 30(132):993-1013.
Chen, Juan, Duoduo Xu and Xiaogang Wu. 2019. “Seeking Help for Mental Health Problems in Hong Kong: The Role of Family.” Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 46(2):220-237.
Zhang, Zhuoni, Tianzhu Nie# and Duoduo Xu. 2019. “Family Background, Parenting Practices, and Child Outcomes: Chinese Immigrants’ Offspring in Hong Kong.” Chinese Journal of Sociology, 5(3), 263-282.
Xu, Duoduo*, Xiaogang Wu, Zhuoni Zhang and Jaap Dronkers. 2018. “Not A Zero-Sum Game: Migration and Child Well-being in Contemporary China.” Demographic Research, 38(26), 691-726.
Xu, Duoduo*. 2018. “From Poverty to Prosperity: College Education, Non-cognitive Abilities, and First-job Earnings.” Chinese Sociological Review, 50(1), 53-82.
· Kerckhoff Award, International Sociological Association Research Committee on Social Stratification and Mobility (ISA-RC28), 2016
Xu, Duoduo and Xiaogang Wu. 2017. “The Rise of the Second Generation: Aspirations, Motivations and Academic Success of Chinese Immigrants’ Children in Hong Kong.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 43(7), 1164-1189.
Xu, Duoduo* and Jaap Dronkers. 2016. “Migrant Children in Shanghai: A Research Note on the PISA-Shanghai Controversy.” Chinese Sociological Review, 48(3), 271-295.