I study how trade, transport, and pricing shocks propagate through connected markets and local economies. My work combines causal inference, quantitative spatial models, and large-scale data systems to produce counterfactual evidence for policy and business decisions.
Trade shocks and local multipliers
I build quantitative spatial models to measure how international trade shocks propagate across China's provincial economies through domestic production networks and non-tradable demand. Core asset: Job Market Paper.
Transport and market integration
I use high-frequency wholesale prices and smartphone-based mobility data to study how passenger connectivity, rather than freight costs, shapes spatial price dispersion across Chinese cities. Core asset: HSR and Market Integration paper.
Pricing and business counterfactuals
I extend the estimate--simulate--optimize workflow from regional trade models to firm-level pricing: estimate demand response, simulate alternative policies, and optimize revenue or margin under cost, inventory, and feasibility constraints. Core asset: Pricing and Promotion Decision Engine.
Working Papers
Built a multi-sector quantitative spatial model for 31 Chinese provinces calibrated to MRIO, ICIO, and Customs micro-data. Identifies the own-trade share as the structural organizing statistic for multiplier heterogeneity, with inland inward-oriented economies amplifying external shocks through non-tradable service demand.
Constructed a panel with 3.99 million city-pair-month observations from daily wholesale prices and mobility indices. Estimates indicate HSR connectivity lowers intercity price dispersion by about 2% on average and up to 5% in short-haul markets.
Extends the estimate--simulate--optimize workflow from regional trade models to firm-level pricing on 6.6M rows of Dominick's scanner data: log-log fixed-effects demand estimation, counterfactual simulation, and constrained profit optimization, deployed as a live Streamlit app.
Experience
2024 - Present
Quantitative spatial modeling and shift-share IV estimation on Chinese trade and production data; model-implied provincial GDP multipliers from 0.30 to 1.02.
2025 - Present
Live demand-estimation and constrained-optimization tool on 6.6M rows of scanner data, deployed as a Streamlit app.
2022 - 2025
Linked large-scale price and mobility data to evaluate transport infrastructure effects on market integration.
2023 - 2024
Silver Medal on Home Credit Credit Risk Model Stability (LightGBM/CatBoost, Polars ETL); Bronze on ICR Identifying Age-Related Conditions (XGBoost/TabPFN ensemble).
2022 - Present
Processed 19 years of 5 km population rasters into a harmonized panel; deployed an interactive Streamlit map in 2025.
2020 - 2025
Supported graduate finance and undergraduate economics courses and coached students in quantitative methods.
Education and Honors
Clark University, Ph.D. in Economics (Expected Aug 2026)
SUNY Buffalo, M.A. in Economics
Valparaiso University, M.S. in International Economics and Finance
Chongqing University, B.Mgmt. in Accounting
Sheftel Award for Research Excellence, Clark University (2025, two-time recipient)
Veendorp Best Field Paper Award (2022)
Doctoral Fellowship, Clark University (2019-Present)
Distinguished Student Award (Graduate School), Valparaiso University Alumni Association (2018)
Kaggle Silver Medal (2024) and Bronze Medal (2023)
Southern Economic Association (2025)
Midwest Economic Conference (2025)
Clark Ph.D. seminars (2022-2025)
Contact
I am happy to discuss research collaboration, counterfactual decision tools, economic consulting, policy analysis, and quantitative research roles in industry or government. Email is the fastest way to reach me.