I am an economist working in urban and regional economics, financial literacy, and applied microeconomics. I received my Ph.D. in Economics from The George Washington University in 2023.
My experience spans academic research and applied policy work at The George Washington University, the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center, and the World Bank.
Email: linch@gwu.edu
Research
Featured Research
“Planning Regulations: Two Tests to Determine if We Have Confused the Cure With the Disease,” (with Nathaniel Harris)
Revised and resubmitted to Regional Science and Urban Economics
Two welfare tests suggest that land-use planning can improve urban amenities and overall welfare, even when it raises housing prices.
Publications
“Evaluating the effects of a low-cost, online financial education program,” (with Robert L. Clark, Annamaria Lusardi, Olivia S. Mitchell, and Andrea Sticha), Journal of Economics Behavior & Organization, Volume 232, April 2025
A field experiment shows that short online financial education stories improve financial knowledge among adults aged 45 and older, with the most persistent gains in understanding risk diversification.
Published article · Working paper version (SSRN)
“Do Households Value Lower Density: Theory, Evidence, and Implications from Washington DC,” Regional Science and Urban Economics, Volume 108, September 2024
Evidence from Washington, DC shows that households value lower neighboring building density, highlighting amenity benefits that should be weighed against the housing supply costs of zoning restrictions.
Published article · Working paper version (SSRN)
“Geographic connectivity and cross-border investment: The Belts, Roads and Skies,” (with Maggie Chen), Journal of Development Economics 146, September 2020
Expanding air, shipping, and rail networks increases cross-border investment and reduces the importance of geographic distance in investment decisions.
Related policy paper: Foreign Investment across the Belt and Road: Patterns, Determinants, and Effects (with Maggie Xiaoyang Chen), World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 8607, 2018.
Working Papers
“Is Additive Independence a Valid Assumption When Testing the Effects of Gun Laws on Crime?”
Evidence that gun laws interact in their effects on robbery suggests that evaluating each law in isolation can misstate its impact.
“Did Mortgage Investors Price Regional Housing Bubbles? A Tale of Two Markets,” (with Daniel Broxterman and Tian Luan)
Differences in mortgage interest rates across cities suggest that private investors recognized regional housing risk during the 2000s housing boom.
Teaching
Instructor
- Intermediate Macroeconomics Theory: Fall 2023
- Survey of International Economics: Fall 2023
- Math camp (for incoming PhD students): 2017, 2018
- Principles of Mathematic Economics: Fall 2016, Fall 2017
Teaching Assistant
- Microeconomics Theory I (PhD students): Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019
- Microeconomics Theory II (PhD students): Spring 2018, Spring 2019
- Intermediate Macroeconomics Theory: Spring 2020
- Principles of Microeconomics: Fall 2015
- Principles of Macroeconomics: Spring 2016
