Yang Yumei is an Assistant Professor at Beijing Forestry University and Research Fellow at IZA. She is a visiting scholar at CEHD through August 2020. Her interests include labor economics and personnel economics, with a focus on the rural-urban migration in China, development of left-behind children, evaluation of labor market programs, and the impact of HRM on labor relations. She obtained her Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics at Renmin University of China, and her B.A. in Management from Shandong University.

The Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Global Working Group is now accepting applications for our doctoral dissertation prize. The $1,000 prize will be awarded for the best dissertation on a topic related to one of HCEO’s 6 networks. In addition to the monetary award, the winner will be flown to the University of Chicago to present their work to the Center for the Economics of Human Development, HCEO directors, and University of Chicago faculty.

Anne Case and Angus Deaton, both Princeton economists, join CEHD Director James Heckman and Associate Director Steven Durlauf in a discussion of their ongoing research into the rise of what they call “deaths of despair.” Case and Deaton also present findings from their new book, Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism. Further Reading Case, Anne, and Angus Deaton. (2020). Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Case, Anne, and Angus Deaton. (2015). “Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(49):15078-15083.        

In 2019, the Center for the Economics of Human Developed continued to foster a comprehensive research program devoted to understanding human flourishing. We are pleased to share a snapshot of the work we did over the previous year.

The Macro Finance Research Program (MFR), Center for the Economics of Human Development (CEHD) will host the second installment of the University of Chicago Policy Forum on November 8, 2019. This second forum will focus on the topic of, “The Pension Crisis: State and Local Pension Challenges.”

Nobel Laureate James J. Heckman, the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago, has received the Friendship Award from the Chinese government. Established in 1991, the Friendship Award is the highest honor issued by the Chinese government to foreign experts. Awardees are chosen for their outstanding contributions to China’s economic and social progress. The award is not only presented in recognition of the foreign expert’s contribution to the Chinese but also a symbol of friendship.

Two of the Center’s predoctoral scholars, Sidharth Moktan, and Tanya Rajan, have completed their research terms at the Center for the Economics of Human Development (CEHD). After three years of service, they are moving on to doctoral programs at first-rate institutions in the United States and abroad.

Research from CEHD Director James J. Heckman and CEHD Predoctoral Fellow Ganesh Karapakula finds that targeted, high-quality early childhood investments have the power to lift multiple generations out of poverty.

CEHD Director James J. Heckman and Dr. Fred Wulczyn, Senior Research Fellow, Chapin Hall, have received a University of Chicago-Chapin Hall Joint Research Fund award for their project studying parental absence in China.

Jiawei Lyu is a master’s student in Economics at Jinan University. As part of The Chicago-Jinan Initiative, a collaboration between CEHD and Jinan University’s Institute for Economic and Social Research, she was the inaugural visiting graduate student at the center in the fall of 2018. During her time at CEHD, she worked on the Mianzhu project, a collaboration with Jinan University on the topic of China’s left-behind children. Her current research interests include labor market discrimination, gender differences and left-behind children in China.