Siyao Li is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on international political economy and business-government relations. Her dissertation investigates how multinational corporations investing into weak institutional environments protect their property, and why they use host government institutions to do so. In particular, she studies how investment by highly innovative multinational firms into host countries with relatively weak rule of law can bring about improvements to institutions for intellectual property protection in these countries. Part of this research focuses on understanding how these dynamics play out in the context of China. She is also pursuing a dual Master’s degree in Statistics at the Wharton School, and holds a B.A., summa cum laude, from Baylor University.