Yuxuan Wu
Research Area
Education
Ph.D. in Economics, University of British Columbia (Expected in 2026)
M.A. in International Economics and Finance, Johns Hopkins University, 2019
B.A. in Economics, South China University of Technology, 2018
About
I am a PhD candidate in Economics at the Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia. My research interests lie in International Trade, Industrial Policy, and Labour Economics, with a focus on how workers and industries adjust to globalization. My job market paper examines the international spillovers of China’s high-tech industrial policies, showing how they reshaped German trade and labour markets via supply-chain spillovers.
I expect to graduate in 2026 and will be available for interviews in the 2025-2026 job market.
Research
Job Market Paper
International Spillovers of China’s Industrial Policy: Evidence from Germany
Abstract: This paper examines the international spillover effects of China’s high-tech industrial policies on German industries and workers. I construct a novel dataset that links hand-collected industrial policy data to German administrative worker panel data, international trade flows and input-output tables from 1996 to 2017, leveraging product-level variation from five waves of China’s policy rollout. Germany’s bilateral trade with China in targeted products expands substantially, with increased exports of final capital goods such as machinery and equipment, and rising imports of industrial suppliers and intermediate goods. Germany also experiences significant supply-chain spillovers. Rising Chinese demand drives export growth in German upstream industries, leading to higher employment and wages. In contrast, German downstream industries increased imports from China, shifting employment from production workers to engineers. These findings reveal an important unintended consequence of China’s industrial policies: domestic growth in targeted products increases reliance on foreign advanced capital goods, generating substantial demand spillovers to Germany.
Work in Progress
Import Competition and Occupational Mobility: Role of Occupation Networks
Spatial Wage Inequality in Life-Cycles: Evidence from Germany
Awards
- President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award, UBC 2020-2025
- International Tuition Award, UBC 2020-2025
- Doctoral Fellowship, UBC 2020-2025