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 economic theory and applied microeconometrics to understand how government intervention shapes competition, innovation, and productivity. On the theoretical side, I develop game-theoretic models of government intervention (subsidies, taxation) in markets where network externalities make demand self-reinforcing. On the empirical side, I use firm-level data to study the effects of innovation support, business advice, and AI adoption on firm productivity. 

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.