Jun Du

Jun Du is Professor of Economics at Aston Business School. Jun is an applied economist whose main research interest is to understand the driving forces and impediments of productivity enhancement and economic growth, from multi-level dimensions of individuals, firms, industries, regions, governments, and their interplays, in both developed and emerging economic contexts (China in particular). She has expertise in applied econometric methodologies using micro-data from both developed and developing countries. Jun held a visiting research fellowship in Stockholm School of Economics and is linked with Chinese Social Science Academy. She is also a research fellow in Advanced Institute of Management, and member of several professional bodies. Jun published in International Journal of Industrial Organization, Research Policy, Journal of Productivity Analysis, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Law, Economics and Journal of Business Venturing and International Journal of Business Studies. Her research has received external funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Leverhulme Foundation, NESTA foundation, and various UK government agencies including UKTI, DTI and BIS, local governments (Manchester, Birmingham and West Midlands local authorities), as well as from the private sector. She led the productivity research projects in the Business Demography Research theme in the UK Enterprise Research Centre (ERC), and currently the Director of the Lloyds Banking Group Centre for Business Prosperity (LBGBP) leading on projects on the UK firm international trade, innovation and productivity.

Research Interests
Trained as an economist, I am interested in understanding the driving forces and impediments of economic growth and development, from multi-level dimensions of individuals, firms, industries, regions, governments, and their interplays.

Empirically, employing microeconometric tools, I draw main observations from different contexts of emerging countries as well as developed economies. The current focus of my research evolves around the UK productivity puzzle, firm export dynamics, high growth phenomenon and the regional economic policy.