Zhiyun joined the UCLA Anderson Forecast in 2023. She focuses on forecasting and studying climate-related issues of the California and U.S economies. Her research interests include investigating how climate change and climate-related disasters affect different aspects of the economy, how economic agents such as firms and individuals adapt to climate impacts and helping policymakers to develop more efficient climate adaptation strategies. In her studies, she employs large spatial data and relies on methodologies ranging from panel data model, difference-in-differences approach to machine learning technique.
Before joining UCLA Anderson Forecast, she received her PhD in Environmental, Energy and Resource Economics from Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. She also holds a bachelor’s degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and a master’s degree in Statistics from Columbia University.