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About Me
I am a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at Georgetown University. My research lies at the intersection of development and labor economics, examining how couples adjust labor supply in response to pension eligibility under weak social safety nets, with evidence from rural pension enrollees in China.
Before my Ph.D., I worked at the Development Research Group for 3 years and later in the Poverty, Energy Global Practices, and Operations Policy & Country Services at the World Bank Group. I hold an M.A. in Economics from Duke University and a B.A. in Actuarial Science from the Central University of Finance and Economics.
You can find my CV here.
Research
Job Market Paper
Retire Him, Deploy Her: Couple’s Asymmetric Labor Responses to Pension Eligibility (with Siming Ye) — [Paper]
Abstract: In economies with weak social safety nets, pension policies can reinforce gender inequality by shifting the burden of income shocks onto women. We document this phenomenon in rural China, where a husband’s reaching pension eligibility age increases his wife’s labor supply, a stark reversal of joint retirement patterns in developed countries. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that wives’ labor force participation increases when their husbands reach pension eligibility age. The mechanism is rooted in the system’s design: the husband’s pension eligibility coincides with his mandatory exclusion from formal employment, triggering a sharp household income loss. Some of them displaced from non-agricultural work are pushed into agricultural work. Meanwhile, wives act as the primary insurer, also increasing their participation in agricultural production. Our findings show how rigid labor markets transform retirement into a household financial challenge managed through increased female labor and specialization. These results provide novel insights for pension design in developing countries, where pension schemes with employment barriers may result in rising gender imbalance in couples’ labor supply.
Teaching
- Undergraduate Econ Principles Micro, ECON 1001 — Fall 2025
- Undergraduate Intro to Econometrics, ECON 2120 — Spring 2025
- Undergraduate Intermediate Micro, ECON 2101 — Fall 2023
- Undergraduate Inequality and Growth, ECON 441 — Spring 2023
- Master in Economics Microeconometrics, ECON 586 — Fall 2022, 2024
- Undergraduate Time Series Econometrics, ECON 424 — Spring 2022, 2024
- Master in Economics Microeconomics, ECON 551 — Fall 2021