Karen Yan

Karen Yan joined the School of Economics in 2019. Her research focuses on econometrics and industrial organization, and she teaches Econometrics I and Econometric Analysis.

1. Who or what inspired you to pursue economics?

While I was a math major in college, I audited some economics classes out of curiosity. I was fascinated to learn how mathematical models could be applied to real-world problems. After talking to a professor in the economics department, I decided to choose economics as my graduate school field.

Complex Job Tasks Improve Problem Solving Skills

By Gita Smith

Job task complexity plays a central role in the development of problem-solving skills by workers, according to research by Haizheng Li, a faculty member of Georgia Tech’s School of Economics. Along with co-author Qinyi Liu at University of International Business and Economics, Beijing. Liu received her PhD in Economics from Georgia Tech in 2018 and Li was her advisor. Li provides new empirical evidence on skill formation via job tasks. The paper focuses on how a worker becomes more productive through learning-by-doing during on-the-job training.

Location Choices of Undocumented Migrants: Does Access to Higher Education Matter

By Gita Smith 

Is access to higher education an important consideration when undocumented migrants choose where they want to live in the United States? Usha Nair-Reichert, Associate Professor of Economics at Georgia Tech explores this question in a study, “Location Choices of Undocumented Migrants: Does Access to Higher Education Matter?”