Research Interests

Biography

Prof Alex Jingwei He holds a professorship at the Division of Public Policy, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He also serves as the Acting Director of the Institute for Public Policy and Co-Director of the Master of Public Policy (MPP) Program of HKUST. Prior to his current appointment, Prof He spent 11 years at the Department of Asian and Policy Studies of the Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) where he served as associate head of department. He received his PhD degree in Public Policy from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. He specializes in policy process theories, health policy and governance, and comparative social policy, with particular focus on East Asia. Prof He has published extensively in these areas, contributing articles to leading international journals and publishing houses, including Public Administration Review, Policy Sciences, Governance, Policy Studies Journal, The China Quarterly, Health Policy & Planning, Social Science & Medicine, Social Policy & Administration, Policy & Society, and Health Policy, among many others. He has been ranked among the world’s top 2% most cited scientists in public administration and political science since 2021.

In May 2021, the University Grants Council (UGC) announced the results of the 2020 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), Hong Kong’s official scheme assessing the research performance and achievement of public universities. All eight public universities in Hong Kong participated in the disciplinary area of political science (including public administration, public policy, and international relations), or Unit of Assessment #25 (UoA 25), submitting their best research impact cases. In the entire Unit, Prof He's impact case was among the only two research impact cases unanimously rated ‘outstanding’ (four star)—the top score—by the international expert panel.

Since 2014, Prof He has received nine external competitive projects funded by the General Research Fund (GRF, x4), Public Policy Research Funding Scheme (PPR), the Early Career Scheme (ECS), and the World Health Organization (APO x2). Two of his GRF projects were rated 5.0 full score by the international review panel.

Prof He is Associate Editor of Policy and Society: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Policy Research (SSCI Q1) and Journal of Asian Public Policy (SSCI Q1), Executive Member of the East Asian Social Policy Network (EASP), and the alumnus of the Ronald Coase Institute. He was twice the recipient of the EdUHK President's Award for Outstanding Performance in Research, and held the Lowenstein Fellowship, Ronald Coase Institute Fellowship, and NUS Research Scholarship. His paper published in Governance won the Chinese Policy Scholar (CPSG) Best Policy Research Award 2023. As a policy scholar, Prof He is actively engaged in policy advocacy. His articles appeared in leading newspapers, including China Daily, South China Morning Post, Hong Kong Economic Journal, Ming Pao and Singtao Daily. He was interviewed by the Phoenix TV, China Central Television (English channel), The Straits Times, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), ATV, China Radio International, and CBS News in the US on various policy issues.

HIGHLIGHTED PUBLICATIONS

• He, J., Qian, J., and Zhu, L. (2024). Policy design and policy feedback in welfare retrenchment: a survey experiment in China. Policy Studies Journal, https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.12569.
• He, J.*, Fan, Y., and Su, R. (2024). Unpack the black box of pilot sampling in policy experimentation: a qualitative comparative analysis of China’s public hospital reform. Governance, 37(3), 803-824 (CPSG Best Policy Research Award 2023).
• Mintrom, M., Maurya, D., and He, J. (eds.), 2020. Policy Entrepreneurship: An Asian Perspective, London: Routledge.
• He, J., Fan, Y., & Su, R. (2022). Seeking policy solutions in a complex system: experimentalist governance in China’s healthcare reform. Policy Sciences, 55(4), 755-776.
• He, J., Zhang, C., & Qian, J. (2022). Covid-19 and social inequality in China: the local-migrant divide and the limits of social protections in a pandemic. Policy & Society, 41(2), 275-290.
• Guo, Y., He, J.*, and Wang, F. (2022). Local policy discretion in social welfare: explaining the subnational variation in the de facto poverty line in urban China. The China Quarterly, 249, 114-138.
• He, J. (2022). The welfare is ours: rural-to-urban migration and domestic welfare chauvinism in urban China. Journal of Contemporary China, 31(134), 202-218.
• Bali, A.Z., He, J., and Ramesh, M. (2022). Health policy and COVID-19: path dependency and trajectory. Policy & Society, 41(1), 83-95.
• He, J., Qian, J., Chan, W.S., and Chou, K.L. (2021). Preference for private long-term care insurance products in a super-ageing society: a discrete choice experiment in Hong Kong. Social Science & Medicine, 270, 1136232.
• He, J., Ratigan, K., and Qian, J. (2021). Attitudinal feedback towards sub-national social policy: a comparison of popular support for social health insurance in China. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, 23(3), 350-371.
• He, J. (2018). Manoeuvring within fragmented bureaucracy and vested interests: policy entrepreneurship in China’s local health care reform, The China Quarterly, 236, 1088-1110.
• Yin, J.D.C. and He, J.* (2018). Health insurance reforms in Singapore and Hong Kong: How the two ageing Asian Tigers respond to health financing challenges? Health Policy, 122(7), 693-697.