AREC would like to welcome its newest assistant professor, Dr. Jing Cai.
She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 2012. Previously, Cai worked at the University of Michigan as an assistant professor for the Department of Economics.
“My interest in economics started in college,” said Cai. “I was majoring in computer science at that time. During one summer I did a survey with my uncle, a bank manager, about rural finance.”
The survey Cai did with her uncle resulted in her becoming interested in studying economics and how financial development influences a rural household's behavior and welfare. In graduate school, she switched her major to economics.
Cai’s primary areas of research include development economics, Chinese economics, and household finance.
“My current research focuses on the diffusion and impact of financial innovations, identifying ways to improve the growth of micro, small and medium enterprises, and impacts of industrial policies on firm behavior,” said Cai.
In the future, she hopes that the policy interventions she designed and implemented will improve economic outcomes.
Cai will teach her first class, Chinese economy, at the University of Maryland in spring 2018.
