Bio
Yi Wang is a doctoral candidate concentrating in Social Policy Analysis at the Columbia School of Social Work. Her research interests center on inequality in child development and child poverty, with cross-nation comparative perspective. She is currently conducting research with Dr. Jane Waldfogel studying effects of policies in the kindergarten year on reducing socioeconomic status related gaps in cognitive skills. Using an international comparative perspective to study this research domain, she collaborates with German scholars to examine inequality in child cognitive skills associated with socioeconomic status in the United States and Germany, and explores factors that explain this inequality. Yi also works with Dr. Qin Gao to examine multidimensional poverty in China and influence of China’s safety-net sustenance program on household wellbeing, with the focus on children. Her dissertation investigates recent trends in socioeconomic status related gaps in school readiness and achievement in the United States, with a focus on studying changes in roles of household financial resources, in- and out-of-home environment and activities, parenting, and child care enrollment in contributing to the gaps from 1998 to 2010. Her dissertation also examines disparities in child cognitive development in China, which can provide implications for possible remedies to promote equity of opportunities in both China and the United States.