Welcome! I am a fifth-year Ph.D. student in Economics at Syracuse University.
I am on the job market for the 2025-26 academic year!
My research interests mainly lie in applied econometrics and economics of crime.
If you would like to get in touch, please email me at yzhan424@syr.edu.
Working Paper
Abstract: This paper examines the impact of cross-border consumption on Hong Kong's local economy, focusing on the food industry that faces a comparative disadvantage. Using administrative data on restaurant registrations from 2021Q3 to 2024Q4, we exploit the sudden lifting of COVID-19 restrictions and the subsequent border reopening between Mainland China and Hong Kong as a natural experiment. Empirical results show that neighborhoods closer to the border experienced significantly more restaurant exits after the border reopening. This adverse impact persists even when considering a surge in Mainland visitors to Hong Kong. Further analysis suggests that local non-chain restaurants are particularly vulnerable, and the magnitude of the impact varies across regions. Taken together, the results highlight the distributional effects of cross-border consumption: while the overall society benefits from deeper regional integration and more open economic policies, policymakers should also pay attention to specific industries and individuals bearing disproportionate costs.
Abstract: We consider the multiple network spatial autoregressive model, where each network consists of agents assigned by their respective managers to produce output. Agents complement one another within their peer network but compete across non-peer networks over multiple periods. To address endogeneity in network formation, we consider a dynamic framework where each network is overseen by a forward-looking manager who behaves strategically in selection of her network’s composition. We implement a Heckman-type selection bias correction to recover network-level contextual effects. Competition is across independent matches, and managers’ actions are characterized by a Markov Perfect Equilibrium within each independent match. Existing theory and our simulation studies suggest that a large number of matches is necessary for consistent estimation of contextual effects. We apply our model to National Basketball Association data, where agents are players, networks are on-court lineups, and competition is head-to-head. We find that ignoring coaches’ dynamic substitutions attenuates the effects of contextual factors, such as score differential, on player performance.
Abstract: We build on Janys (2024), who models implicit gender-based hiring quotas for German universities, but we apply the theory of ranking and selection to identify which possible quota value of women per department (0, 1, 2, . . .) deviates the most from gender-blind hiring. Janys finds a significant implicit quota of one or two women per department. Using the same dataset, we find that the inference is not sharp enough to conclude that any single quota value deviates the most from gender-blind hiring with any reasonable confidence, so any policy targeting the quota value that deviates the most may be ineffective. We also theoretically extend the male/female quota model to allow for a test of implicit quotas for more than two hiring categories (e.g., black, white, Asian).
Abstract: This paper examines the effect of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD)’s reform restricting the use of pretextual stops on policing pattern and public safety. The results reveal that Los Angeles police persistently reduced their enforcement of pretextual stops significantly more in minority neighborhoods relative to non-minority neighborhoods. At the same time, minority neighborhoods experienced a significant, sharp and disproportionate increase in crime incidents, particularly property crimes. I provide evidence linking the decline in pretextual stops to the rise in crime. These findings suggest that while limiting pretextual stops curtailed biased enforcement, it also imposed disproportionate public-safety costs on minority neighborhoods, underscoring the distributional trade-off between police enforcement and public safety in the design of jurisdiction-wide reforms.
