Spotlight on CSDE Affiliate, Claire Yang
Posted: 9/1/2020 (CSDE Research)
Dr. Clair Yang is an Assistant Professor specializing in Chinese Economics in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. She is also a non-resident scholar at the 21st Century China Center at the School of Global Policy and Strategy (GPS), UC San Diego. She received her Ph.D. in Managerial Economics and Strategy from Northwestern University. Most recently, Dr. Yang was a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Sloan School of Management at MIT. Her research is in the area of political economy, applied microeconomics and the Chinese economy.
Dr. Yang and coauthors recently published a study in Economics Letters examining the data quality of the Chinese Industrial Census (CIC). Employing a novel statistical method, Benford’s test, the authors show that the method is effective in uncovering data irregularities. Based on predicted industrial output by variables that are less manipulable, such as employment and electricity, the study further demonstrates that firms differ in data manipulation behavior by ownership type. The authors find no conclusive evidence of data manipulation by state-owned enterprises (SOEs), whereas private firms tend to under-report performance.
She has also been quoted in The New York Times and Patch in articles on harbinger research and how states manage coronavirus restrictions, respectively.