Hello! I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Economics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I will be on the 2025-2026 Job Market.
My research focuses on improving financial access for small businesses in low- and middle-income countries. I primarily use randomized experiments.
Areas: Development Finance, Household Finance, Entrepreneurship, and Labor Economics
Email: yj27@illinois.edu
NewsÂ
I am honored to win the Louis Pasteur Prize for the best PhD student papers at the Advances with Field Experiments Conference hosted by the University of Chicago (Sep 2025). .
I received an Honorable Mention Award at the Korea America Economic Association Job Market Conference (Nov 2025).
I presented my job market paper at American Economic Association Annual Meeting at the Development Finance session. (Jan 2026).