Contact Information
Office 332, Department of Economics
Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN 47907
Email: li3920@purdue.edu
Education
Ph.D., M.S. in Economics, Purdue University, 2026 (exp.)
Committees: Jillian B. Carr (chair), Victoria Prowse, Ben Zou, and Timothy N. Bond
M.A. in Economics, Duke University, 2019
B.A. in Economics, Peking University, 2018
B.S. in Statistics, Beijing Forestry University, 2017
Research Fields
Labor Economics, Public Economics, Health Economics, Economics of Crime, and Applied Microeconometrics
Skills
Programming: Stata, Python, MATLAB, SQL, R, LaTeX, Maple, Mathematica
Technical: Causal Inference, Machine Learning, Data Analysis, Financial Analysis
Certification: Passed all three levels of the CFA program
Awards & Fellowships
Bilsland Dissertation Fellowship 2025-2026, Purdue University, 2025
Daniels School of Business Certificate for Outstanding Teaching, Purdue University, 2023
M.A. Merit Scholar Award from the Department of Economics, Duke University, 2019
Outstanding Student Scholarship, Beijing Forestry University, 2016
Outstanding Research Paper Awards, Beijing Forestry University, 2014-2016
National Endeavor Scholarship, Ministry of Education of China, 2014
Internship
Economist Intern, Amazon, 2025
Developed and validated statistical forecasting models for One Medical clinics, reducing forecast error (MAPE) from 40% to 15% at the clinic level and 10% at the regional level over horizons of up to 18 months
Designed an optimization framework to align customer acquisition investments with service capacity
Enhanced predictive accuracy by incorporating 70M+ records of retail data into machine-learning models (e.g., XGBoost with SHAP), reducing clinic-level MAPE from 15% to 10%, and identifying potential future markets for new locations
Conducted model validation and sensitivity analysis to ensure robustness and reliability of predictions
Communicated model results to cross-functional stakeholders to support business planning and decision-making
Seminars & Conferences
Southern Economic Association Annual Meeting, Tampa, Florida, 2025
Midwest Economics Association Annual Meeting, Kansas City, Missouri, 2025
Midwest Health Economics Conference, Indiana University, 2024
Labor Lunch Workshops, Purdue University, 2024-2025