WEI HUANG
http://scholar.harvard.edu/weihuang
huangw@nber.org
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Placement Director: David Cutler DCUTLER@FAS.HARVARD.EDU 617-496-5216
Placement Director: Oliver Hart OHART@HARVARD.EDU 617-496-3461
Graduate Administrator: Brenda Piquet BPIQUET@FAS.HARVARD.EDU 617-495-8927
Office Contact Information
1050 Mass Ave Fl 4
Cambridge MA 02138
Cell phone number: 617-999-3450
Teaching and Research Fields:
Labor Economics, Health Economics, Public Economics
Academic Employment:
Post-Doctoral Fellow, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), 2016-2017
Graduate Studies:
Harvard University, Ph.D. in Economics, 2016
Thesis Title: Five Essays in Labor and Public Economics
References:
Professor David Cutler Professor Richard Freeman
Littauer Center 230, Harvard University 1050 Mass Ave, NBER
617-496-5216, dcutler@fas.harvard.edu 617-588-0305, freeman@nber.org
Professor Adriana Lleras-Muney
9373 Bunche Hall, UCLA
310-825-3925, alleras@econ.ucla.edu
Undergraduate Studies:
M.A. in Economics, Peking University, with distinction, 2011
B.S. in Physics and B.A. in Economics, Peking University, with distinction, 2008
Academic Affiliations:
Research Fellow, The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), 2014 C Present
NBER Pre-Doctoral Fellow in Aging and Health Economics, 2013 C 2014
Inequality Doctoral Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, 2013-2016
Wertheim Fellow, Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard University, 2013 C 2015
Student Affiliate at Institute for Quantitative Social Science 2012 - 2016
Publications:
Huang, Wei, Xiaoyan Lei, and Yaohui Zhao. Forthcoming. "One-Child Policy and the Rise of Man-made
Twins." Review of Economics and Statistics.
Freeman, Richard B, and Wei Huang. 2015. “Collaborating with People Like Me: Ethnic Co-authorship within the
US”. Journal of Labor Economics 33(3) (S1): S289-S318.
Huang, Wei. 2015. “Do ABCs Get More Citations Than XYZs?”. Economic Inquiry 53 (1): 773-789.
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Cutler, David M, Wei Huang, and Adriana Lleras-Muney. 2015. “When Does Education Matter? The Protective
Effect of Education for Cohorts Graduating in Bad Times”. Social Science & Medicine 127: 63C73.
Freeman, Richard B, and Wei Huang. 2014. “Collaboration: Strength in diversity”. Nature 513 (7518): 305.
Huang, Wei, and Yi Zhou. 2013. “Effects of Education on Cognition at Older Ages: Evidence from China's Great
Famine”. Social Science & Medicine 98: 54-62.
Huang, Wei, Xiaoyan Lei, Geert Ridder, John Strauss and Yaohui Zhao. 2013. “Health, Height, Height Shrinkage,
and SES at Older Ages: Evidence from China.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 5(2): 86-121.
Book Chapter:
Freeman, Richard B, and Wei Huang. 2015. “China's “Great Leap Forward” in Science and Engineering”. In
Global Mobility of Research Scientists: The Economics of Who Goes Where and Why, ed. AIdo Geuna. Elsevier
Inc, p. 155-175.
Research Papers:
"Economic Conditions and Mortality: Evidence from 200 Years of Data." with David Cutler and Adriana
Lleras-Muney
Abstract: Using historical mortality data covering over 100 birth cohorts in 32 countries, this paper examines the
short- and long- term effects of economic conditions on mortality. We confirm two seemingly contradictory
patterns documented before. Poor economic conditions while growing up (from birth to age 25) significantly raise
adult mortality. Yet contemporary down- turns appear to decrease mortality. In addition we document some new
findings. Poor economic conditions in adolescence have the largest adverse effect on adult mortality. We also find
that although small expansions raise mortality, large expansions lower it. We rationalize these findings with a
model of health investments that affect the stock of health, which in turn determines mortality. This simple model
suggests that selection cannot explain the difference between the short- and long-term effects of good economic
conditions. Instead economic conditions differentially affect the level and trajectory of both good and bad inputs
into health. We investigate these implications by examining how several health (income, pollution, behaviors and
social relations) inputs are affected by economic conditions. In line with previous work, shocks in adolescence
have a large and lasting effect on adult incomes. Moreover higher government expenditures offset some of the
negative effects of early-life economic fluctuations on health and incomes, consistent with the idea that these
programs provide some form of insurance. Air pollution is strongly pro-cyclical and helps explain the
contemporaneous impact of economic conditions on mortality. Finally, data from the European Community
Household Panel suggests that in addition to income, social integration improves with good economic conditions
earlier in life, but does not support the idea that health behaviors do. (JEL Codes: H51, I10, I38, N10)
"When Fewer Means More: Impact of One-Child Policy on Education of Girls." with Xiaoyan Lei and Ang
Sun
Abstract: Do fewer children to give birth in the future induce more education investment? Using the temporal and
regional variation in One-Child Policy (OCP) implementation in China, we find that stricter fertility policies
during teenage years induced higher female education attainment. The impacts of the policies on female education
are also associated with those on female labor force participation, non-manual occupation, delayed marriage and
childbearing, and attitudes regarding children and gender equality. The findings suggest that the expected fertility
play an important role in education investment in girls and contribute a new explanation for the empowerment of
women in last century. (JEL codes: I20, J13, J16, J18)
"Support the Elderly: Power of Social Pension." with Chuanchuan Zhang
Abstract: This paper presents new evidence on the effects of social pension on lives of the elderly. Analysis using
historical mortality data from 10 countries shows that mortality of the age-eligible elderly reduced by 1.7-2.2
percent just after the social pension provision. Using the institutional variation of a new social pension provision
in rural China, we further find that, among the pension-eligible people, the scheme increased their household
income and food expenditure by 17.6 and 9.6 percent, and reduced labor supply and health insurance participation
by 6.2 and 5.7 percent. In addition, it also significantly improved their health status in terms of less reported
disability, underweight and lower mortality rate. (JEL classifications: E21, H55, I38, O22)
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"One-Child Policy, Marriage Distortion and Welfare Loss." with Yi Zhou
Abstract: This paper studies the marriage distortion and the associated welfare loss caused by the One-Child
Policy (OCP) in China. Using the variation in the ethnicity-specific assigned birth quotas and different fertility
penalties across provinces over time, we first show that the OCP induced a significantly higher unmarried rate and
more interethnic marriages. Using sufficient statistics approach, we then derive a formula for the social welfare
loss caused by the OCP-induced lower fertility and marriage distortion, and it only depends on the estimated
reduced-form elasticities. Our estimates suggest that the associated welfare loss is around 3.7 percent of annual
household income, with marriage distortion contributing 30 percent of this. These findings highlight the
unintended behavioral responses to public policies and corresponding social consequences. (JEL codes: I31, J12,
J13, J18)
"Overconfidence and Insurance Participation among the Elderly", with Mi Luo
"Understand Effects of Education on Health: Evidence from China."
Referee Activities:
Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Public Economics, American Economic
Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of Health Economics, Canadian Journal of
Economics, Journal of Population Economics, Economic Inquiry, Health Economics, Economics and Human
Biology, Economics and Education Review, Research Policy
Teaching Experience:
Spring, 2016 Economics of Discontinuous Change (Econ 1818), Harvard University, Teaching Fellow
for Professor Richard Freeman
Fall, 2015 Microeconomic Theory: Advanced (Econ 1011a), Harvard University, Head Teaching
Fellow for Professor Edward Glaeser
Spring, 2015 Empirical and Mathematical Reasoning 20 (EMR 20), Harvard University, Teaching fellow
for Professor David Cutler
Spring, 2014 Economics of Discontinuous Change (Econ 1818), Harvard University, Teaching Fellow
for Professor Richard Freeman
Research Experience:
2012-2013 Harvard University, Research assistant for Professor Richard Freeman
2011-2012 Harvard University, Research assistant for Professor Edward Glaeser
Honors, Scholarships, and Fellowships:
2016-2017 NBER Post-Doctoral Fellowship on Economics of an Aging Workforce
2015-2016 NBER Dissertation Fellowship on Economics of an Aging Workforce
2015-2016 Jeanne Humphrey Block Dissertation Award, Harvard University
2015 Extraordinary Potential Prize of Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-
Financed Students Abroad, Chinese Ministry of Education
2015 CES-North America Conference Grant
2011, 2014 Warburg Research Fund, Harvard University
2014 Poster Session Winner, Population Association of America
2014 CCHER Visiting Scholarship, Peking University
2013-2014 NBER Pre-doc Fellowship in Aging and Health Economics
2013, 2014 IQSS Conference Travel Grant, Harvard University
2012, 2013 IQSS Graduate Research Grant, Harvard University
2012 Cheung Yan Family Research Grant, Harvard University
2010-2016 Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Fellowship, Harvard University
2010 China Development Research Scholarship
2009 Morgan Stanley Research Scholarship
Conference Presentations and Academic Activities:
2016 NBER Summer Institute (Health Economics), Boston.
2015 American Economics Association Annual, Boston; Population Association of America
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Annual Meeting, San Diego; The CES North America Conference, Ann Arbor; Whitebox
Advisors Graduate Student Conference, Yale University; CES Conference, Chongqing;
CIREQ Montreal Applied Economics Conference, Montreal; Fourth SOLE/EALE World
Conference, Montreal; Econometric Society World Congress, Montreal; Deepening
Economic Reforms Conference, Beijing; 2nd Biennial Conference of China Development
Studies, Shanghai.
2014: American Economics Association Annual, Philadelphia; Population Association of
America Annual Meeting, Boston (Poster); The CES 2014 North America Conference,
West Lafayett; 11th Annual Migration Meeting (AM2), Bonn; International University
Summer Institute on ageing, Venice (Participant); 2014 China Economics Summer
Institute, Beijing; China Meeting of Econometric Society, Xiamen; RAND Summer
Institute, Los Angeles (Participant).
2013 Price Theory Summer Camp, Chicago (Participant); RAND Summer Institute, Los Angeles
(Participant); First Biennial Conference of China Development Studies, Shanghai; Summer
School of Socioeconomic Inequality, Chicago (Participant); China Meeting of Econometric
Society, Beijing (Coauthor present); Population Association of America Annual, New
Orleans (Poster); American Economics Association Annual, San Diego.
2012 NBER High-Skill Immigration in Science and Engineering Conference; Population
Association of America Annual, San Francisco (Coauthor present).
2011 North East Universities Development Consortium, New Haven (Coauthor present);
European Society for Population Economics Annual Meeting, Hangzhou.
2010 China Economics Annual Meeting, Zhengzhou; International Symposium on Contemporary
Labor Economics, Xiamen; Australian Health Economics Society Conference, Sydney.