Zhihan (Helen) Wang
PhD Candidate in Business Economics
Stephen M. Ross School of Business
University of Michigan
There is an ancient Chinese motto from the pre-Qin dynasty, saying "It takes ten years to grow a tree, but a hundred years to nurture a generation."
十年树木,百年树人。——《管子》
Welcome to my personal website!
I am a final-year PhD candidate at Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, where I am fortunate to be advised by Prof. Jun Li, Prof. Damian Beil, and Prof. Jagadeesh Sivadasan. I hold a Bachelor's degree in Economics with a minor in Data Science from Fudan University, China.
My research is dedicated to advancing equitable opportunity for the younger generation and underserved populations, with a focus on uncovering and addressing disparities that have long been overlooked by industry practitioners and policymakers in contexts such as Education Technology (EdTech), AI of Education, higher education, and childcare. I employ a variety of empirical and behavioral methods such as econometrics, field experiments, applied machine learning, and natural language processing.
To learn more about me, you can access my CV, LinkedIn profile, SSRN homepage, Google Scholar, or send me an email. Always happy to meet new friends!
News
Jan 2025: I presented the paper “30 Million Canvas Grading Records Reveal Widespread Sequential Bias and System-Induced Surname Initial Disparity” at POMS-HK and the 2nd Workshop on Empirical Operations Management at HKU. So glad to connect with the global academic community!
Nov 2024: Our poster "Childcare-Eldercare Co-location and Service Quality" has been selected as a finalist of the Social Research, Policy, and Practice section outstanding poster award at 2024 Gerontological Society of America (GSA) Annual Meeting!
Oct 2024: I presented two papers at INFORMS 2024:
“Close Childcare Retains Talent: An Empirical Study of Childcare Availability and Turnover of US Knowledge Workers”
“30 Million Canvas Grading Records Reveal Widespread Sequential Bias and System-Induced Surname Initial Disparity”
Oct 2024: Our paper "30 Million Canvas Records Reveal Widespread Sequential Bias and System-design Induced Surname Initial Disparity in Grading" has been covered by The Hechinger Report!
July 2024: Our paper "Mind the Gap: Gender Disparity in Online Learning Interactions" is recognized as a finalist for the 2024 M&SOM Best OM Paper Award!
May 2024: Motivated by our research, on May 22, Canvas released an update that will allow instructors to randomize the order student submissions are presented in Speedgrader for review and grading.