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Hi there!
I am a PhD Student at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a Research Scholar at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
I work on questions related to climate adaptation, energy transition, and economics of organisations.
From September 2022 to August 2023, I was a Research Economist at the IFS.
You can reach me at w.zou2@lse.ac.uk
Publications
Is a UK Government commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals good for the economy and business in general? (with Brooklyn Han, Sally Yang, and Patrick Leitloff) pdf
Brown University Journal of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, 2022, vol. 3 Issue2
2020 UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) Renaissance Prize
Working Papers
Police Organisation and Police Performance (with Elisa Facchetti and Arianna Ornaghi) [draft available upon request]
Awarded EIEF Research Grant (2024)
Presentations: 2025 Bocconi Firm Behaviour in Rough Environment Workshop, 2025 Bank of Italy EPSI Conference
Hungry Clouds: Environmental Externalities of Data-Intensive Development [draft available upon request]
Abstract: Global electricity demand from data centers is set to more than double in the next five years, yet their local economic and environmental externalities remain poorly understood. This project aims to examine the aggregate and distributional effects of policies that influence data center location decisions. In Brazil and the US, I track facility entry, operating costs, and local economic outcomes to study: (1) what drives data center location choice; (2) what are their local economic impacts; (3) which policies can effectively manage their externalities. To evaluate effectiveness and welfare costs of alternative policies, I develop a quantitative spatial model featuring data center entry, firm production, labor mobility, and electricity markets.
Presentations: 2025 LSE Energy Markets Miniconference
Dynamic Effects of Health on Employment among Older Workers (with Richard Blundell, Jack Britton, Monica Costa Dias, and Eric French) R&R Journal of Economics of Aging
Energy Transition in Low- and Middle-Income Countries [draft coming soon!]
In preparation for the Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Economics and Finance
Public WASH Programs, Long-Run Child Development, and Intergenerational Mobility in China (with Dongqin Wang)
Winning Paper, 2024 Asian Development Bank-IEA Innovative Research Award
Asian Development Institute WP: ADBI WP 1396 WP
Presentations: 2024 Japanese Association for Development Economist Conference, 2023 Asian Development Bank Conference, Applied Young Economist Webinar, Hong Kong Economics Association Annual Meeting, WASH Econ Conference, Singapore Meeting of Econometric Society (Declined)
Selected Work in Progress
Heat Insurance at Work (with Amen Jalal, Pol Simpson, Ashley Pople)
AEA RCT ID: AEARCTR-0015728
Heatwaves, intensified by climate change, hit the poorest the hardest. Many are exposed to dangerous temperatures through outdoor work or limited access to adaptive resources. In 2024, 37 cities in India surpassed 45°C (113°F), and around 40,000 heat stroke cases were reported. How can social protection systems evolve to address the growing losses caused by extreme heat? We evaluate an innovative intervention in India that offers automatic daily wage payments to low-income workers when temperatures exceed a predetermined threshold. Developed by the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) – a union representing over 3 million informal workers – the scheme is the world's first parametric heat insurance product targeting earnings loss. We use a randomized encouragement design, incentivizing SEWA officers to promote enrollment in 2,821 treatment villages, while 2,821 control villages receive no targeted outreach.
Clearing the Air on Used Vehicles (with Yunyu Shu, Xinmei Yang) [Slides available Upon Request]
Funding: International Growth Centre
How does the presence of international trade in used durable goods, such as vehicles, affect the efficacy and relative welfare effects of unilateral policies to decarbonize transportation? This project combines a micro-founded structural model with novel data from multiple countries, to understand the effectiveness, potential economic costs, and environmental impacts, of restricting trade in used vehicles.
The Spatial Diffusion of Distributed Solar (with Qingyu Chen and Yifan Wang)
Funding: Private Enterprise Development in Low-Income Countries (PEDL) Exploratory Research Grant
The Lifecycle of Judicial Bias (with Omry Yoresh)
The Geography of Development Programs (with Marta Morando and Beyza Gulmezoglu)
Pre-Doctoral Work
Resource Cursed? The Short- and Long-run Effects of Coal Mining on Human Capital Accumulation in Indonesia [in submission]
Best Performance in LSE Quantitative Thesis (EC331) in 2022
Presentations: The 21st Carroll Round at Georgetown University (2022), University of Sydney SSEAC Emerging Scholars Conference (2022), 2023 University of Oxford Centre for Study of African Economies (CSAE) Conference, 2023 Nordic Development Conference, 2023 German Development Conference
Ethnic Earnings Gaps among University-Educated Men in England (with Ben Waltmann, and Jack Britton)
Presentations: 2023 Sheffield Work, Pensions and Labour Economics Conference, 2023 York Workshop on Labour and Family Economics
Covid And The City: Intra-Hospital Transmission of Covid-19 (with Brooklyn Han, Stefanus Phan, and Callum Renton).
Can decentralisation be a force for bad? New evidence from environment clearances in India (with Brooklyn Han, Visheshika Baheti, Chloe Chong, and Naomi Sanders) SSRN
Presentations: LSE Interdisciplinary Student Research Conference (2021), University of Oxford MPhil Novel Ideas Seminar (2022)
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