What led you to your career as an academic and researcher?
When I was a PhD student, I found conducting research to be challenging and enthralling. I loved the great sense of fulfillment after finishing a research paper or project. After my PhD studies, I decided to pursue a career as an academic and researcher.
What are your main research areas and interests?
My research focuses on issues related to aging, social security, and inequality in China. In recent years, my research mainly examines benefit levels of the old-age insurance systems, effects of pension reforms, and redistributive effects of the pension systems on income and wealth inequality in China.
Can you briefly introduce your home institution?
I come from the School of Insurance and Economics at University of International Business and Economics (UIBE). UIBE, founded in 1951 in Beijing, is a multidisciplinary and national key university with economics, management, law, literature, and science as its core academic areas of expertise. The School of Insurance and Economics is one of the earliest academic programs dedicated to risk management and insurance education and research in China. The School makes great achievements in the education and research on risk management and insurance, social security and labor economics, and actuarial science.
What aspects of being a visiting scholar at Columbia were exciting to you?
Many aspects of being a visiting scholar at Columbia were exciting to me. I will mainly highlight two points: the first is the lovely students. I had some chances to teach and interact with the students during my visit. I found Columbia students to always think critically and raise interesting and important questions. They are very bright, aspiring, and hardworking.
Second, there are all kinds of seminars during the semester, where many distinguished professors from around the world present and share their research. I benefited a lot from attending these seminars.
What were your main research activities during your stay at Columbia and in NYC?
During my visiting year at Columbia, I carried out research on the Chinese pension system jointly with Prof. Qin Gao. She offered excellent advice and guidance in my research work. Our research especially examines whether the recent pension reforms helped narrow the gender gap in pension income. In summer 2018, I participated in the “Inequality by the Numbers” workshop organized by the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center. The workshop exposed me to a broader range of approaches to the study of socio-economic inequalities and latest research findings of many distinguished scholars in this field.
