Teaching Instructor

ENV 850: Quantitative Causal Inference in Environmental Policy, Spring 2024, Duke University (Syllabus)

This course is designed to give students a foundation in the methods and applications of program evaluation in environmental policy. Program evaluations seek to identify the causal effect of a program/policy/regulation on some outcomes of interest. In the environmental area this often involves evaluating whether a program has actually had a causal impact on environmental quality. This class will enable students to use causal inference methods to evaluate a policy and improve policy outcomes. At the end of the class, students will be able to critically understand the application of the econometric tools in the recent empirical literature and apply these approaches to design their own program evaluation.

ENV 520: Resource and Environmental Economics I, Fall 2023, Duke University (Syllabus)

This course provides a survey of environmental economics. This class focuses on basic theory and methods of economic analysis of environmental problems including benefit-cost analysis, non-market valuation, and instrument choice.

ENV 635: Energy Economics and Policy, Fall 2023, Duke University (Syllabus)

Economics of markets and policies for various energy supply sources, energy demand and efficiency, their interactions with each other, and with the economy and environment. Will explore rationales for why markets for energy and related technologies have been subject to extensive government intervention. Course will analyze effects of policy responses, including energy price regulation, the interface of energy, environmental, and technology policy, and policy motivated by energy security concerns.

Teaching Assistant

ENV 520: Resource and Environmental Economics I, Fall 2019 / Fall 2020, Duke University

Fall 2019: instructor Kyle Wilson; Fall 2020: instructor Lori Bennear

This course provides a survey of environmental economics.  The course covers conceptual and methodological topics and applies these skills to current issues in environmental and resource policy. 

ENV 521: Resource and Environmental Economics II, Fall 2019 / Fall 2020, Duke University

Fall 2019: instructor Martin D. Smith; Fall 2020: instructor: Jeffrey R. Vincent

This class focuses on the economics of natural resource management: the optimal management of such resources as fisheries, mineral deposits, and forests, including their role in sustainable economic development. My primary responsibility is to help students understand concepts covered in the lectures and homework assignments. 

PUBPOL 155: Introduction to Policy Analysis, Spring 2020, Instructor: Sarah Komisarow, Duke University

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the fundamental tools and methods of public policy analysis. 

Feedbacks from instructor: "Yu was the best Head TA that I have ever had. She was exceptionally organized, met all deadlines (checking problem set solutions, posting problem sets for students), and skillfully assisted with the transition to online teaching. I am very grateful for her hard work, attention to detail, and for the time and effort she put into making the course a success (particularly monitoring the student discussion board for student questions). Her knowledge of the course subject matter was invaluable. I enjoyed working with Yu!"

Econ 821: Non-Market Valuation, Fall 2022, Instructor: Christopher Timmins, Duke University 

This course covers non-market valuation techniques typically used to measure the value of local publicgoods and (dis)amenities. Topics covered include hedonics (property value and wage hedonics), techniques based on weakcomplementarity (travel cost) and weak substitutability (defensive expenditures), stated preference (contingentvaluation), and estimable equilibrium Tiebout sorting models. 

Teaching Statement

Since I started the doctoral program in Environmental Policy, I have been actively making efforts to enhance my pedagogical training. I have experience in assisting and instructing several undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral-level classes in Environmental Economics, Natural Resource Economics, and Public Policy and Analysis. During my studies at Duke University, I enrolled in the Certificate in College Teaching program, participated in the Teaching Triangles, and completed two courses – Fundamentals of College Teaching and College Teaching & Visual Communication. There are two objectives I embrace in teaching: First, I aim to help students to build a foundational understanding of economics. To achieve this, I focus on linking economics concepts and models and asking students to summarize class materials in short paragraphs. Second, I aim to help students apply economics models to critically evaluate policy-relevant and real-world issues. To achieve this, I focus on introducing real-world scenarios and helping students write policy memoranda.

Clarification, Connections, and Summarization: To achieve the first objective, I focus on providing clarification of class materials during class sessions and office hours. I create a clear structure of economics concepts and break down concepts and models in clear detail and offer graphical approaches to help students understand the class materials. For instance, in the master’s Environmental Economics class, many students who did not major in economics have difficulty understanding the introductory economics concepts, such as demand and supply. To help students understand, I draw demand and supply curves, list the steps in calculating consumer and supplier surplus, and point out the regions representing consumer and supplier welfare. Students are also able to learn how to link homework questions to the class materials and how the class materials can be used to solve homework questions. In the master’s Natural Resource Economics class, students are required to use excel solver to solve a dynamic fishing decision problem. Students are usually confused how the excel solver question can be related to the dynamic optimization problem. During my office hours, I first review the class concepts and help students understand the main objective of the question is to maximize the sum of firm’s discounted profits. Students then go through the excel steps to calculate the sum of discounted profits and use solver to find optimal path that maximizes the total profits.

Understanding how class materials are related is one essential step in understanding economics and achieving good class grades. Students mention review sessions before exams are helpful in understanding the links between the concepts. For instance, in the master’s Resource and Environmental Economics class, students are asked to use the demand and supply curves to calculate the total social welfare with presence of externalities. Students need to compare the welfare loss when imposing different policies, such as cap and trade or tax policies, when the demand or supply curve is uncertain. The review sessions help students better prepare for exams by asking them to solve questions requiring understanding of multiple lecture materials.

Summarizing the complicated economics concepts into short paragraphs is another important step in understanding the class materials. To achieve this, I ask students to write short summaries on economics concepts during office hours and review sessions. In the master’s Natural Resource Economics class, to help student better understand the optimal long-run stock of a natural resource, students are asked to use concepts of natural capital and financial capital to explain the optimal path in different scenarios, such as fisheries, old growth forests, and oil extraction.

Evaluations and Feedbacks: Writing thoughtful exam questions is one useful channel to evaluate students’ understanding of course materials. In the undergraduate’s Public Policy class, I helped the professor write multiple choice questions requiring students linking class materials. For instance, a question related to game theory combines statements for two-player, multiple-players, simultaneous-move, and sequential-move games. Students need to fully understand the concepts in the broad game theory topic to select all the correct statement(s). Providing detailed feedback to homework and exams is another tool to reinforce students’ understanding. I provide detailed grading rubric and feedback when constructing and grading homework and exams.  In the master’s Natural Resource Economics class, many students have difficulty correctly discounting future profits in the dynamic setting question. When grading their homework, I check each period’s discounting, point out in which period the discounting is wrong, and list a few other options of discounting equations. Students see all the partial credit options that break down all the score points, so they understand in which step they solve the questions wrong.

Applications: The optimal goal of learning economics is to apply the course concepts to reality. I help students connect economics models and concepts to real-world problems and critically evaluate policy programs. In the undergraduate’s Public Policy and master’s Environmental Economics class, students are required to write professional-quality policy memoranda for a range of target audiences. In writing the policy memos, students need to apply the course materials to real-world policy issues. For example, students need to apply cost-benefit analysis and provide suggestions on the city construction programs to the city mayor. During class time, students learn the sample policy memos, such as structure and format, and understand the key economics-related elements that help answer the policy questions. Because people who do not major in economics may have difficulty understanding professional economics terminologies and concepts, how to break down complex issues into components that are more easily and quickly understood is important. I help students reconstruct the wording and structure so the recommended policy action and supporting evidence can be better understood by non-expert audiences. Detailed grading rubric is provided after grading, for example, whether students clearly stated the policy recommendations and provided well-justified analyses in supporting their suggestions. Students mention the policy memos help them understand class materials and it becomes easier for them to link news to economics in the real world.

I plan to integrate these materials and principles in my future teaching. I will also continue to actively encourage students’ feedback on my teaching and to seek out additional pedagogical training resources for improvement.