Alex Shuai Shi is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Real Estate and Construction of the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR; Deputy Director of the surveying undergraduate program; Fellow of HKU Urban System Institute and Real Estate Lab. He also holds an HKU-Cambridge Hughes Hall visiting fellowship. As an urban economist, his research aims to disentangle the complexity of the urban economic system from three interwoven theoretical aspects: Who are the productive actors to sustain urban economic growth? (with a particular focus on startups and innovators); What can cities provide to enhance the welfare of productive actors? (with a particular focus on the role of housing markets and informal institutions); How are these productive actors interconnected over space to access external resources, ultimately resulting in regional disparity? (with a particular focus on investment and migration flows). He has led several research grants funded by the Hong Kong University Grants Committee, National Natural Science Foundation of China, and Hong Kong Chief Executive’s Policy Unit.