Tao Zou
PhD student
Research interests
- International development
- Economics
- Business
- Policy
Biography
Tao is a PhD candidate in International Economics at King's College London. He was a 25/26 Miguel Dols Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where he also served as a Guest Teacher in the Department of Economics. He has policy experience at UNCTAD in Geneva. Before coming to King's, he studied at LSE and the University of Manchester.
His research investigates multiple challenges facing multinational enterprises in an era of global value chains, with particular attention to relocation strategies amid US-China decoupling. Embracing an interdisciplinary perspective, he aims to bridge rigorous academic theory and empirical analysis, with implications for policy and strategic practice.
His work has been recognised with several prestigious awards. He is a 2025 recipient of the Strategy Research Foundation Will Mitchell Research Grant from the Strategic Management Society (SMS), and a 2024 recipient of the AIB-Sheth Foundation CIBER Fellowship. His research was also nominated for the 2026 SMS Conference Best PhD Paper Prize and the 2024 UNCTAD-AIB Award for Best Research on Investment and Development.
Research
Thesis title: 'Essays on OFDI and Trade for Development: Rethinking Firm Strategy through a Global Value Chain Lens'
PhD supervision
- Principal supervisor: Dr Yundan Gong
- Secondary supervisor: Dr Jan Knoerich
Further Details
Research
Global Production, Finance and Labour research group
A multidisciplinary research group that explores inclusive and sustainable growth.
Chinese International Investments research group
We examine how Chinese companies and government initiatives have made China a new source of large-scale capital investments and business activities in a variety of sectors.
Technology, Inequality, and Development research group
We are an interdisciplinary collective within the Department of International Development with two related concerns: the rise of AI and cutting-edge technologies and inequalities of income, wealth and power.
Global Capitalism, Power & Uneven Development research group
We study the many ways in which the world-system unevenly constrains and drives development everywhere, with its persistent structural hierarchies, dependencies, contradictions, and unequal power relations between classes, ethnicities, genders, races, and states.
Research
Global Production, Finance and Labour research group
A multidisciplinary research group that explores inclusive and sustainable growth.
Chinese International Investments research group
We examine how Chinese companies and government initiatives have made China a new source of large-scale capital investments and business activities in a variety of sectors.
Technology, Inequality, and Development research group
We are an interdisciplinary collective within the Department of International Development with two related concerns: the rise of AI and cutting-edge technologies and inequalities of income, wealth and power.
Global Capitalism, Power & Uneven Development research group
We study the many ways in which the world-system unevenly constrains and drives development everywhere, with its persistent structural hierarchies, dependencies, contradictions, and unequal power relations between classes, ethnicities, genders, races, and states.