Irisa Zhou is one of the winners of the inaugural Rising Star Award for her job market paper Skill Mismatches and Earnings Inequality Among College Graduates. Her paper examines why there is such differentiation in earnings among college graduates with the same major, despite having similar skills.
A PhD candidate in the Department of Economics, Zhou specializes in labour and macroeconomics issues. Her research uses quantitative macroeconomic methods and causal inference using tools like MATLAB and Python.
The Rising Star competition is an initiative of the Chinese Economist Society in cooperation with the Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE) in Beijing and the Young Economist Society (YES). Zhou presented her findings at the organization’s North American Annual Conference at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business in March.
“The CES Academic Rising Star Paper Competition is a prestigious award recognizing outstanding young Chinese economists worldwide who have recently entered the job market,” said Susan Feng Lu, Professor in Economic Health Policy at the Rotman School of Management and President of the CES. “Winners are selected based on their ability to address real-world economic issues through innovative thinking and rigorous scientific methods.”
Zhou is excited by the CES’ response to her research.
“I am honoured and pleasantly surprised to receive the runner-up place for this exciting award,” she said. “It is truly an encouraging start to my upcoming job market entry, and I am deeply grateful. I hope the final version of my paper will live up to this recognition.”
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