Shao-Yu Jheng's research topics include (i) (rapid) industrialization and premature deindustrialization, (ii) state capacity and industrial policy, (iii) institutions, (iv) USA's aid policy, covering the fields across political economy, economic history, development economics, and industrial organization.  

Previously working at National Taiwan University, his works have explored USA's lend-lease aid to China during the World War II, Qing Taiwan's land institutions, and the impacts of Japanese colonial legacies on Taiwan's postwar industrialization.

At Harvard, he currently works with Professor Melissa Dell to utilize deep learning methods to unlock the potential of large-scale Japanese historical archival data, in order to answer big questions about the East Asian miracle.