Xiaoyang’s research centers on the political economy of historical China, with a particular interest in how changes in state capacity and market opportunities reshaped local institutions and elite behavior. He studies how political and economic resources were allocated across regions, and how local elites responded to and helped shape these institutional changes.

His current projects examine these questions in different settings, including the formation of political elites, the development of lineage organizations, and changes in intellectual production in imperial China. His work combines historical sources with quantitative methods to study the institutional foundations of long-run development.