Yi Chen is an associate professor at the School of Entrepreneurship and Management, ShanghaiTech University. He graduated from the School of Economics of Peking University as an undergraduate, and then went to the University of California, Los Angeles for further study and received his Ph.D. in Economics. His main research areas include labor economics, population economics and development economics. He is currently a Fellow of the Global Labor Organization (GLO) and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Population Economics. His research results have been published in American Economic Review, International Economic Review, Journal of Development Economics and other leading academic journals. He has received the young scholars fund (2020-2023) and the excellent young scholars fund (2025-2027) from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and has been awarded the 16th Shanghai Philosophy and Social Science Outstanding Achievement Award (from the Shanghai Government), and the 9th Outstanding Achievements in Scientific Research in Colleges and Universities (from the Ministry of Education of China).

Labor Economics, Population Economics, Development Economics, Applied Microeconomics

chenyiecon.weebly.com

2020.07 — present, School of Entrepreneurship and Management, ShanghaiTech University, Associate Professor

2019.10 — 2020.6, Institute for Economic and Social Research, Associate Professor

2016.10 — 2019.9, Institute for Economic and Social Research, Assistant Professor

2015.9 — 2016.9, Jinhe Center for Economic Research, Assistant Professor

2015.6, Ph.D. in Economics, University of California, Los Angeles

2010.6, Bachelor in Economics, Peking University

1. “The State of Mental Health Among Older Chinese and the Role of Children.” (with Hanming Fang). 2024. Japanese Economic Review. Forthcoming.

2. “Evaluating the Effects of a Massive Rural Education Expansion in Pre-reform China.” (with Ziying Fan, Xiaomin Gu, and Li-An Zhou). 2024. Journal of Population Economics, Vol.37.

3. “The Timing of First Marriage and Subsequent Life Outcomes: Evidence from a Natural Experiment.” (with Yi Zhao). Journal of Comparative Economics, Vol.50(3), 713-731.

4. “Motherhood and Gender Wage Differentials within a Chinese Firm.” (with Hong Zhang and Li-An Zhou). 2021. Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol.70(1), 283-320.

5. “The Long-Run Consequences of China’s “Later, Longer, Fewer” Campaign in Old Age.” (with Hanming Fang). 2021. Journal of Development Economics, Vol.151, 102664.

6. “Arrival of Young Talents: Send-Down Movement and Rural Education in China.” (with Ziying Fan, Xiaomin Gu and Li-An Zhou). 2020. American Economic Review, Vol.110(11), 3393-3430.

7. “The Power of the Government: China's Family Planning Leading Group and the Fertility Decline since 1970.” (with Yingfei Huang). 2020. Demographic Research, Vol.42, 985-1038.

8. “Estimating Returns to Education in Urban China—Evidence from a Natural Experiment in the Schooling Reform.” (with Sheng Jiang and Li-An Zhou). 2020. Journal of Comparative Economics, Vol.48(1), 218-233.

9. “Explaining the Decline of the U.S. Saving Rate: the Role of Health Expenditure.” (with Maurizio Mazzocco and Bela Szemely). 2019. International Economic Review, Vol.60(4), 1823-1859.

10. “Does Raising Family Income Cause Better Child Health? Evidence from China.” (with Xiaoyan Lei, Li-An Zhou). 2017. Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol.65(3), 495-520.

1. “Recovering Overlooked Information in Categorical Variables with LLMs: An Application to Labor Market Mismatch.” (with Hanming Fang, Yi Zhao, and Zibo Zhao). 2024. Available as NBER Working Paper 32327.

2. “Beyond the Scores: Understanding the Gender Gap in Access to Elite Universities in China.” (with Sikun Dou, Hongbin Li, and Roujing Wu). 2024.

3. “Can Cultural Change Facilitate Policy? China's Experience in Promoting Later Marriage in the 1970s.” 2023.

4. “Never Too Old to Save? Explaining High Savings Rates among Urban China’s Elderly.” 2016.