Yuzheng Wang (王煜正)

I am a Graduate Student in Economics Research Intensive Track at Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics, the University of Chicago.

My research explores how societies manage risk and develop systems of insurance over time. Drawing on public economics, financial economics, and economic history, I focus on three interconnected areas: social insurance and cash transfer programs, insurance markets and pension funds, and risk and financial organization in history. Through both theoretical modeling and empirical analysis, my work investigates how risk-sharing arrangements—from imperial fiscal institutions to modern pension and insurance systems—shape risk-resisting behavior and intergenerational insurance.

Research

Publications

"The Impact of Long-Term Care Insurance on Family Intergenerational Transfers" (with Zaigui Yang, and Naiqi Wang). 2024. Volume 16, Number 1. Chinese Review of Financial Studies.

Working Papers

"The Risk of Reputation: When Trust Creates Capital Strain in Insurance" (with Hairuo Guo, Xianfu Jiao, and Sujin Zheng).
"Old Age Allowance and Intergenerational Insurance".

Working in Progress

"The Origins of Insurance: Trade Expansion and Risk Governance".
"From Tax Farms to Risk Pools: Fiscal Constraints and the Emergence of Insurance in Late Imperial China".

Teaching

Big Data and Causal Inference Seminar Autumn 2023
Teaching Assistant, Course for Graduate, with Prof. Sicheng Chen, Tsinghua University
Insurance Technology Spring 2023
Teaching Assistant, Course for Graduate, with Prof. Hua Zhou, Central University of Finance and Economics
Camphor Western Plan Summer 2022
Teaching Assistant, Course for Graduate, with Prof. Shilin Zheng, China Academy of Social Sciences

Hobby

Yuzheng Wang studied violin with his mother since childhood. At the age of ten, he studied violin with Prof. Zhinuo Ding, of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, for a total of twelve years. He has participated in the Shanghai Conservatory of Music's extracurricular string orchestra for elementary school students and children's choir, and was once the concertmaster of the Central University of Finance and Economics Symphony Orchestra. He is now the principal second violin of the University of Chicago Chamber Orchestra.

If today is your birthday, then congratulations! You will receive a Happy Birthday song played on the violin!

Contact Information

Yuzheng Wang
yuzhengwang@uchicago.edu