Yang Gao

Yang Gao

  yang_gao at ucsb dot edu

  2041 North Hall, UCSB

  CV

 Google Scholar

Welcome! I am a sixth year Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. My research interests lie primarily in Macroeconomics and Environmental and Energy Economics.

My current research agenda includes:

1. Studying second-best carbon taxes in the presence of capital misallocation among heterogeneous firms.

2. Investigating the effectiveness of climate change mitigation policies with realistic transition dynamics in the factor substitution.

Education

University of California, Santa Barbara
Ph.D. in Economics, Expected 2026
Committee: Peter Rupert (Chair), Yueyuan Ma, Gregory Casey

Renmin University of China
B.A. in Economics, 2019

University of California, Davis
Exchange Student, 2017-2018

Working Papers

Capital Misallocation and Climate Policy
(Job Market Paper, Solo Authored)

Energy Efficiency Dynamics and Climate Policy
(Joint with Gregory Casey)
Under review.

Work In Progress

Macroeconomic Evidence on Substitution Between Clean and Dirty Energy
(Joint with Gregory Casey)

Research Experience

Research Assistant for Prof. Tamma Carleton, Prof. Ishan Nath, Prof. Levi Crews, Feb 2021 - Sep 2022
Research Assistant for Prof. Christopher M. Meissner, Apr 2018 - Jul 2018

Selected Awards and Honors

  • Dissertation Summer Fellowship, UCSB 2024
  • Economics Graduate Research Quarter Fellowship, UCSB 2024
  • Best Second-Year Research Paper Award, UCSB 2022
  • Gretler Foundation Fellowship, UCSB 2022
  • Distinction in Ph.D. Preliminary Qualifying Examination - Macroeconomics, UCSB 2020
  • National Scholarship (Top 0.2% Nationwide - Highest Honor for Chinese Undergraduates), RUC 2018
  • Academic Perfection Recognition (All A+'s in 9 Courses), UCD 2018
  • Chancellor's Exchange Student Scholarship, RUC 2017
  • Academic Scholarship, RUC 2016, 2017

Teaching Assistant Experience

  • ECON 204C. Macroeconomic Theory III (Ph.D. Level), S2021
  • ECON 181. International Finance, W2024
  • ECON 101. Intermediate Macroeconomic Theory (Head TA), W2021, W2022, S2022, W2023, S2023
  • ECON 180. International Trade, F2021, F2022, F2023
  • PSTAT 109. Statistics for Econ, F2020
  • ECON 2. Principles of Economics - Macro, W2020, S2020
  • ECON 10A. Intermediate Microeconomic Theory, F2019