Rate My Professor Xingfei Liu

Xingfei Liu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Alberta, Faculty of Arts. She is a labor economist specializing in labor economics, applied econometrics, policy evaluation, and economics of migration. Her research guides public policy by estimating the effects of interventions on labor market outcomes using quasi-experimental methods. Key areas of interest include policies to increase female labor force participation and reduce gender wage gaps, improving labor market outcomes for disadvantaged groups, the effects of labor market institutions on economic efficiency especially in China, economic assimilation of immigrants in the U.S. and Canada, and human capital accumulation dynamics with other labor market outcomes.

Liu earned her Ph.D. in Economics from Concordia University in October 2012. Her professional career includes positions as Assistant Professor at Ryerson University from September 2015 to June 2016 and at Concordia University from August 2011 to June 2013. She joined the University of Alberta Department of Economics in July 2016. Notable publications include "Risk Attitude and Migration: Evidence from China" with Mehtap Akgüç, Massimiliano Tani, and Klaus F. Zimmermann (China Economic Review, 2016), "Dynamic Skill Accumulation, Education Policies and the Return to Schooling" with Christian Belzil and Jorgen Hansen (Quantitative Economics, 2017), "Expropriation with hukou change and labour market outcomes in China" with Mehtap Akgüç, Massimiliano Tani, and Chuhong Wang (China Economic Review, 2020), "Temporary versus permanent migration: The impact on expenditure patterns of households left behind" with Chuhong Wang and Zizhong Yan (Review of Economics of the Household, 2020), "Higher Education Expansion and Crime: New Evidence from China" (China Economic Review, 2022), and "How the earnings growth of US immigrants was underestimated" with Harriet Duleep and Mark Regets (Journal of Population Economics, 2022). She has served as a member on PhD defense committees at the University of Alberta, including for Long Zhao in June 2020.