Ying Xu
I am a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics at the University of Chicago. I received my PhD in Economics and Education from Columbia University in May 2024. I am on the 2026–2027 job market.
My research is in Economics of Education, Industrial Organization, and Public Economics. I study how public policies and major events affect equity and efficiency, combining quasi-experimental research designs with structural models.
My CV can be found here.
Job Market Paper
Navigating Competitive Pressures: School Responses to Competition and the Distributional Effects on Student Achievement
Abstract: This paper examines the equity-efficiency implications of traditional public schools’ (TPSs) responses to increased competition from charter schools. Using administrative data from North Carolina, I find that TPSs respond to student and teacher attrition to charter schools by reducing the number of classes, resulting in increased class sizes and higher student-teacher ratios. To maintain school proficiency rates, TPSs strategically reassign high-quality teachers to low-achieving and economically disadvantaged students. These effects remain consistent even after accounting for changes in school composition. Furthermore, I develop and estimate an empirical model of school choice and competition to analyze the impact of charter sector expansion. The findings indicate that expanding charter schools promotes a more equitable distribution of high-quality teachers within TPSs. Additionally, optimizing teacher-student matching emerges as an effective strategy to improve allocative efficiency.
[Paper]