Main Areas of Research

I consider myself primarily a development economist, with a passion for investigating the determinants of development and evaluating development policies. [Labels are provided for every project.]
1. Social, Economic, and Environmental Determinants of Health
"Maternal Exposure to Climate Variability and Child Mortality: A Multi-country Study", with Hongbing Xu, Vanessa Oddo, Xinhou He, Qinghong Zhang, and Wei Huang​ (under review at Nature Communications)
  • Manuscript not available yet​
  • ​[Determinant: ENSO]
  • [Health indicator: child mortality]
Zhihan Cui, Lu Liu, and Castiel Chen Zhuang*. "The Impact of the Removal of Zero-COVID Policies on Subjective Well-being: Evidence from a Digital World." Economics Letters, 229: 111189, August 2023​
  • [​Determinant: the removal of Zero-COVID Policies​]
  • [Health indicator: subjective well-being/mental health]
Castiel Chen Zhuang, Jessica Jones-Smith, Sarah Andrea, Anjum Hajat, and Vanessa Oddo. "Maternal Precarious Employment and Child Overweight/Obesity in the United States", Preventive Madicine, 169: 107471, April 2023.
  • ​[Determinant: precarious employment]
  • [Health indicator: overweight/obesity]
Vanessa Oddo*, Castiel Chen Zhuang, Jessica Jones-Smith, Anjum Hajat, Jerome Dugan, Sarah Andrea, and Trevor Peckham. "Association between Precarious Employment and BMI in the United States." Obesity, 31(1): 234-242, January 2023. (Editors' Choice)
  • ​[Determinant: precarious employment​]
  • [Health indicator: overweight/obesity]
Hongbing Xu, Castiel Chen Zhuang* Xinpeng Guan, Xinghou He, Rongshan Wu, Tong Wang, Qinghong Zhang, and Wei Huang. "Associations of Climate Variability Driven by El Niño-Southern Oscillation with Excess Mortality and Related Medical Costs in Chinese Elderly." Science of the Total Environment, 851: 158196, December 2022.
  • ​[Determinant: ENSO]
  • [Health indicators: elderly mortality, and medical costs]
Vanessa Oddo*, Castiel Chen Zhuang, Sarah Andrea, Jerzy Eisenberg-Guyot, Trevor Peckham, Daniel Jacoby, and Anjum Hajat. "Changes in Precarious Employment in the United States: A Longitudinal Analysis." Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 47(3): 171-180, April 2021.​
  • ​[Determinant: precarious employment]
  • [Health indicator: not identified]
2. Poverty and Inequality
"The Rise of Mobile Money and Digital Divide in Malaysia during the COVID-19 Pandemic", with Saizi Xiao​ (working paper)
  • Manuscript available upon request
  • [Inequality indicator: digital divide]
Xuezheng Qin*, Tianyu Wang, and Castiel Chen Zhuang. "Intergenerational Transfer of Human Capital and Its Impact on Income Mobility: Evidence from China." China Economic Review, 38: 306-321, April 2016.​​
  • ​[Inequality indicator: income mobility]
夏庆杰*，孙祁祥，庄晨：“中国经济转型时期性别工资差异分析”，《社会科学战线》，2015年第10期，第38-55页。​
  • ​[Inequality indicator: gender wage gap]
"Evaluating the Economic Impact of BKSS in Sarawak", with Saizi Xiao, Wong Chin Yoong, and Sharifah Nabila binti Syed Salleh (work in progress)
  • ​[Poverty indicator: bottom​ 40% income group]
"Assessing the Economic Impact of Temporary Basic Income (TBI) in Malaysia", with MIER and UNDP (work in progress)
  • ​[Poverty indicator: bottom 40% income group]
"Evaluating the Effects of Rural Revitalization Policies in China", with Zhengwen Liu (work in progress)
  • ​[Poverty indicator: 832 "key poor" counties]
3. The Economics of Healthcare Policies
"Examining the Zero-Markup Drug Policy in China: A Structural Approach", with Qifan Huang and Zhentong Lu
"Health Insurance Design with Heterogeneous Preferences", with Julie Shi and Xi Wang ​
  • Previously circulated as "Understanding Deductible and Reimbursement Maximum: A Study of Rural China's Tiered Medical System", "Understanding Deductible and Reimbursement Maximum in a Tiered Medical System" and "Health Insurance Design in a Tiered Medical System"
  • To be presented in the 2023 WEAI Annual Meeting
  • Presented in the 2022 ARIA Annual Meeting​
  • Manuscript available upon request
  • ​[Healthcare policy: the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme]
Yi Chen, Julie Shi*, and Castiel Chen Zhuang. "Income-dependent Impacts of Health Insurance on Medical Expenditures: Theory and Evidence from China." China Economic Review, 53: 290-310, February 2019.​
  • ​[Healthcare policy: the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme]
秦雪征*，周建波，辛奕，庄晨：“城乡二元医疗保险结构对农民工返乡意愿的影响——以北京市农民工为例”，《中国农村经济》，2014年第2期，第56-68页。
  • 全文转载于人大复印报刊资料《统计与精算》2014年第4期​​
  • ​[Healthcare policy: the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme]
4. Human Capital Development
秦雪征，庄晨*，杨汝岱：“计划生育对子女教育水平的影响——来自中国的微观证据”，《经济学(季刊)》，2018年第3期，第897-922页。​
  • [​Human capital indicator: educational attainment]
Xuezheng Qin, Castiel Chen Zhuang*, and Rudai Yang. "Does One-Child Policy Improve Children's Human Capital in Urban China? A Regression Discontinuity Design." Journal of Comparative Economics, 45(2): 287-303, May 2017.​
  • ​[Human capital indicator: educational attainment]

Other Areas of Research

I also devote to utilizing empirical industrial organization methods to understand both supply and demand sides. [Labels are attached to each project.]
Supply Side
"Can Rising Urban House Prices Actually Limit the Outward FDI by Firms in a Home Country? A Story from China", with Feng Yu, Jingwei Chen, and Ning Li (working paper)​
  • Manuscript available upon request
  • [​Labels: outward FDI, house prices]
"Do Joint Ventures Innovate More? Micro-evidence from China", with Jingwei Chen, Bing Li, and Feng Yu (working paper)​
  • Manuscript available upon request
  • [​Labels: inward FDI, innovation]
"Heterogeneous Effects of Trade Liberalization on Skill Upgrading: Evidence from APTA", with Chujian Shao and Qiliang Chen  (working paper)
  • ​​Previously circulated as "Trade Liberalization and Skill Upgrading: Evidence on the Impact of APTA on Chinese Manufacturers"
  • Manuscript available upon request
  • [​Labels: trade liberalization, on-the-job training]
"Competition and Product Assortment in a Social E-commerce Platform: A Deep Learning Approach", with Ying-chin Chen and Qifan Huang (working paper)
  • Previously circulated as "The Causal Impact of Market Competition on Product Variety: A Deep Neural Network Representation Learning Approach"
  • Presented in the 2021 INFORMS Annual Meeting (presented by coauthor; check out the session abstract here)​
  • Manuscript available upon request
  • [​Label: online platform]
Qifan Huang, and Castiel Chen Zhuang*. "Training, Productivity, and Wages: An Investigation of China's Manufacturing Enterprises in a Privatization Era." ​Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, 30(2): 269-288, Apr 2022. ​
  • [​Label: on-the-job training]
"China's Environmental Policies and Innovation: A Systematic Evaluation", with Xianling Long (work in progress)
  • [​Label: pollution control, innovation]
Demand Side
"Heterogeneous Policy Impacts: A Modal Regression Approach", with Ying-chin Chen (working paper)
  • ​Manuscript available upon request
  • [​Label: medical spending]
Qifan Huang, Saizi Xiao, and Castiel Chen Zhuang*. "The Heterogeneous Impact of COVID-19 in a Two-Sided Market: Evidence from a Live-Streaming Platform." Applied Economics, 54(49): 5670-5689, October 2022.
  • Presented in the NABE TEC 2020 Virtual Poster Sessions​
  • [​Labels: online platform, gifting behavior]