Haoran Sun

Hello!

I am a Researcher at Durham University Business School, where I work on the Smart & Scale Up project with a business support provider in the North East of England, analysing regional scaleup dynamics and their economic impact in North East England using firm-level microdata. 

My research combines game-theoretic modelling of industrial policy and taxation with applied microeconometric analysis of firm productivity, innovation support, and technology adoption. On the theoretical side, I develop models of industrial policy under network externalities and of international taxation of digital businesses. On the empirical side, I use firm-level data to analyse high-growth business dynamics and identify the firm-level effects of public policy.

My forward research programme tests whether the productivity gains from AI adoption and public procurement are systematically larger in self-reinforcing markets, linking my theoretical work to empirical evidence for better-targeted UK industrial policy.

I received my PhD in Economics from Durham University in 2023 (ESRC funded). Before joining Durham University Business School, I was a Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews on an ESRC-funded project examining how constraints on access to finance and under-investment affect productivity growth in smaller firms.