Zhenyu Zhu, a MA in Public Policy with Certificate in Research Methods student at Harris Public Policy, worked with Prof. Shaoda Wang to explore the political economic determinants of the global decline in nuclear investment, with a regional focus on China. As an aspiring public policy researcher, Zhenyu helped analyze various datasets from nuclear reactor vendors and China’s mainstream newspapers to examine the study Chinese government’s thought process on nuclear energy development post-Chernobyl. Zhenyu plans to pursue a PhD degree in economics or public policy.
“The RA experience provided me with in-depth exposure to the application of causal inference approaches, and increased my proficiency in coding to process large-scale data of diverse types, which is highly beneficial for my future research career. In addition, the first year PhD courses at Harris Public Policy School helped me lay a solid foundation in econometrics.”