Yijia Chen: Latest PhD graduate at the Department of Economics
Federica Romei, Professor at Oxford University acted as Opponent at the Defense.
This doctoral dissertation comprises three self-contained chapters on macroeconomics.
Chapter 1 examines the welfare effects of eliminating interest rate distortions between the public and private sectors. Using a two-sector heterogeneoushousehold model, it finds that eliminating financial friction benefits all households, while removing implicit guarantees on state-owned enterprise debt improves welfare for the poor but harms the rich.
Chapter 2 estimates China’s effective tax rates on consumption, labor, and capital income. Employing a bottom-up structural approach that accounts for all tax categories, it underscores the importance of structural modeling in accurate tax burden estimation.
Chapter 3 analyzes how firm heterogeneity shapes the transmission of foreign shocks, such as unexpected capital outflows. In an open economy model with firms differing in productivity, capital, and debt, it shows that heterogeneity amplifies consumption and output volatility by weakening the investment response during capital flight.
