Siyi (Simon) Li

Ph.D. Candidate in Economics
University of Rochester

On the 2026–27 economics job market

Fields: Applied Microeconomics · Development Economics · Labor Economics

Curriculum Vitae (PDF) Job Market Paper Email

About

I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Economics at the University of Rochester, where I expect to receive my Ph.D. in 2027. My research is in applied microeconomics and development economics, with a focus on how education and information shape social attitudes, group identity, and economic outcomes.

I design and run field experiments — most recently a randomized controlled trial with over 1,000 secondary school students in Kyrgyzstan — and combine them with large-scale administrative and census microdata. Methodologically I work with randomized experiments, difference-in-differences, and machine-learning tools for causal inference.

Before Rochester I received an M.Phil. and a B.S. in Economics from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, graduating with First Class Honours.

I will be attending the ASSA/AEA meetings in January 2027 and am available for interviews. Please feel free to get in touch.

Job Market Paper

Foreign Language and Universalism: A Field Study in Kyrgyzstan

Job Market Paper · Draft available upon request

This paper investigates the causal impact of foreign language instruction — specifically, Mandarin Chinese — on universalist values and political attitudes among junior students in Kyrgyzstan. Exploiting the quasi-random assignment of students to Mandarin language classes at local schools through the Confucius Institute, I show that exposure to Mandarin instruction significantly increases domestic and global universalism, as students in the treatment group allocate resources more equitably to out-group members in hypothetical money allocation tasks. Political attitudes become more inclusive, with treated students displaying greater support for immigration, redistribution, and global environmental issues. These findings contribute new causal evidence on the role of foreign language education in shaping universalist values and inclusiveness, with important implications for education policy and social integration in multi-ethnic societies.

Keywords: universalism; language learning; field experiment; political attitudes; education

Research

Working Papers

Individuating Information and Belief Updating: Evidence from a Lab-in-the-Field Experiment

Working paper, 2026 · Draft available upon request

Abstract

Why do cultural education programs sometimes fail to improve attitudes toward the out-groups they are intended to influence? I study this question using a lab-in-the-field experiment in Kyrgyzstan. Students were randomly assigned to receive either individuating information about Chinese people or factual information about China. The main outcome is a dictator game allocation between a Chinese recipient and a co-ethnic Kyrgyz recipient. Individuating information increases allocation to the Chinese recipient by 42 Som (0.27 standard deviations), while factual information does not. I find no effects on allocations to other out-groups. I interpret these results through a framework in which individuating information reduces perceived social distance by shifting the mental representation of an out-group from an abstract category to a set of concrete individuals.

Keywords: individuating information; belief updating; group identity; social distance; discrimination

Ethnic Wage Disparities: Evidence from China

Working paper, 2025 · Draft available upon request

Abstract

This paper provides new evidence on wage disparities between ethnic groups in China using a detailed mini-census dataset that covers all provinces and ethnic minorities. Unlike previous studies that aggregate all minorities or focus on limited regions, this study disaggregates ethnic groups and examines the heterogeneity of wage gaps across regions. Using Mincerian wage regressions, the analysis shows substantial wage penalties for minorities, particularly Uyghurs and Tibetans, who face the largest disparities relative to Han workers. These gaps are most pronounced in economically underdeveloped regions, such as the northwest and southwest, while regions with better economic conditions, such as the central and northern provinces, exhibit smaller or negligible gaps.

Keywords: ethnicity; wage disparities; regional variation; discrimination

Work in Progress

Political Crisis and Immigrant Self-Selection: Evidence from Canada's 2021 Lifeboat Policy

In progress, 2026–

A quasi-experimental study of the causal impact of Canada's 2021 “Lifeboat” immigration pathway. I build a person–year panel linking landing records to tax records and estimate event-study and staggered difference-in-differences models with fixed effects to characterize how a political shock changes the selection and labor market trajectories of immigrants.

Contact

simonliecon@gmail.com
Department of Economics
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627

CV (PDF) LinkedIn