![A headshot of smiling Yu-Hsiang Lei who has short black hair and is wearing a black suit with a white collared shirt underneath and glasses with a black frame. He is standing in front of a lake.](https://www.yale-nus.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ylei_profile_pic_head.jpg)
Assistant Professor Yu-Hsiang Lei completed his undergraduate education at National Taiwan University. He holds an MSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics and PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics.
Asst Prof Lei’s research focuses on understanding how institutional or political factors shape economic outcomes, with a particular interest in developing countries. His exploration in this direction begins with the government-business connection and extends to the effect of democratisation on bureaucratic performance, as well as the cause and prevention of internal armed conflicts.
Asst Prof Lei’s second research focus is on using events in history to understand economic problems and how historical legacies may result in what we have today. In this direction, he starts by using the early telegraph network in 19th-century China to understand how reducing information friction affects the market as well as the governance.
“Quid Pro Quo? Government-Firm Relationships in China”, Journal of Public Economics, forthcoming
“Communication Infrastructure and Stabilizing Food Prices: Evidence from the Telegraph Network in China,” (with Pei Gao), American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, forthcoming
“Do giant oilfield discoveries fuel internal armed conflicts?,” (with Guy Michaels), Journal of Development Economics, vol. 111, pp. 139–157, September 2014
- Advanced Econometrics
- Development Economics
- Intermediate Macroeconomics
- Quantitative Reasoning