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Yifei Wang

Economist

University of California, Santa Cruz | 2nd year Ph.D. Student

About Me

I am currently a Ph.D. candidate in Economics with a strong focus on applied microeconomics and education policy. My research primarily explores the causal impacts of educational policies, such as school attendance boundary rezoning and targeted interventions like Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) programs, on student outcomes, resource allocation, and housing markets.

Leveraging advanced econometric methods and machine learning techniques, my work aims to contribute to the development of more effective, equitable, and evidence-based policies. With a multidisciplinary background, I have published papers on dynamic optimization algorithms, credit scoring models, and speech recognition. I actively engage in collaborative projects and value the opportunity to contribute to meaningful societal impact through rigorous analysis and innovation.

Personal Interest

In my free time, I enjoy hiking and exploring national parks, finding inspiration in nature’s balance and systems. I am also an avid reader of science fiction, which fuels my imagination and innovative thinking. Additionally, I am passionate about photography, capturing everyday moments that tell stories of resilience and community. To relax, I experiment with cooking recipes from different cultures, believing food connects us across diverse backgrounds.

Professional Goal

My career goal is to become a professor in economics, where I can combine my passion for research and teaching. I aspire to contribute to the field of education economics by conducting innovative, data-driven research that informs policies promoting educational equity and social mobility. As a professor, I aim to mentor and inspire the next generation of economists, fostering their intellectual growth while building a collaborative academic community. Through both research and teaching, I hope to make a lasting impact on the academic and policy-making landscape.

Technical Skills

Data Science

Stata
Stata
SAS
SAS
Matlab
Matlab
QGIS
QGIS
R
R

Programming Language

Python
Python

Research

Publications

Intelligent Test Paper Generation Based on Dynamic Programming Algorithm2020[PDF][HTML]

Journal of Physics: Conference Series

This paper describes the problem of intelligent paper grouping and its mathematical model.

A Novel Method For Credit Scoring Based On Feature Transformation And Ensemble Model2021[PDF][HTML]

PeerJ Computer Science

This paper designs a heterogeneous ensemble model by weighting the factorization machine (FM) and deep neural networks (DNN), which can efficiently extract low-order intersections and high-order intersections.

Combined Spectral and Speech Features for Pig Speech Recognition2022[PDF][HTML]

Plos one

The network model with the best results and the classifier were selected for combination. An accuracy of 93.39% was achieved on the pig speech classification task, while the AUC also reached 0.99163, demonstrating the superiority of the method. This study contributes to the direction of computer vision and acoustics by recognizing the sound of pigs.

Application of a Maverick Stock Capturing Strategy in the Chinese Stock Market2022[PDF][HTML]

International Conference on Mathematical Statistics and Economic Analysis

We propose a maverick stock trading strategy and apply it to the Chinese stock market

Working Papers

The Impact of School Attendance Boundary Rezoning on Housing Prices and Students' Academic Performance
  • Evaluated the causal impact of boundary adjustments on student academic performance and housing prices.
  • Utilized GIS and machine learning to analyze school attendance boundary changes.
  • This study aims to provide actionable insights for policymakers on how to adjust the school attendance boundary.
Evaluating the Impact of Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) Policies on Students' Academic Performance
  • Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) policies target underperforming schools identified under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
  • The research evaluates CSI's effectiveness in reducing achievement gaps and improving resource equity using school-level data and advanced econometric methods.
  • This study aims to provide actionable insights for policymakers to optimize intervention strategies, ensuring long-term educational improvements and equity.

Teaching Experience

@ University of California, Santa Cruz

ECON 124: Machine Learning for Economists

Teaching Assistant - Michael Pak-shing Leung

2025.01-Current

ECON 1: Introductory Microeconomics

Teaching Assistant - Subhra Baran Saha

2024.09-2024.12

Student Evaluation Highlights:

"She helped me encourage that I could succeed in the course by trying to put the answer and concept into simpler terms."
"My TA was very kind and friendly which was encouraging"
"She would often have a whiteboard on her screen share showing us on how she would do the work and sometimes show other examples from classes she took herself."
"I appreciated when we went over problems step by step"

ECON 1: Introductory Microeconomics

Teaching Assistant - Kwok-Chiu Fung

2024.04-2024.06

Student Evaluation Highlights:

"She often giving all his student insightful teaching materiale letting me catch on the class and prepared for the exam"
"Going over questions and really explaining them helped to fully understand a concept."

ECON 1: Introductory Microeconomics

Teaching Assistant - Kwok-Chiu Fung

2024.01-2024.03

Student Evaluation Highlights:

"The TA's responsiveness over email with issues I was having with the coursework was extremely helpful."
"The TA had people answer questions that she asked which was helpful in getting students to interact. She drew on the board which made it helpful to visualize the concepts."

Education

Southwestern University of Finance and Economics

2016.09-2020.07

B.A. in Economics

University of Calgary

2021.09-2022.09

M.A. in Economics

City University of Hong Kong

2023.01-2023.07

Research Assistant

University of California, Santa Cruz

2023.09-2024.06

M.A. in Economics

University of California, Santa Cruz

2023.09-Current

Ph.D. student in Economics