Hi I'm Zhoudan (Zoey) Xie. I am a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the George Washington University, expecting to graduate in May 2025. My research interests include macroeconomics, regulation, innovation, firm dynamics, and economic growth. I specialize in applying advanced natural language processing (NLP) techniques and text-as-data analysis to study the economic effects of regulation.
I will be on the job market in the 2024-2025 academic year.
While pursuing my PhD studies, I also work as a senior policy analyst at the GW Regulatory Studies Center. Collaborating with interdisciplinary faculty and scholars, I use empirical econometric analysis to study regulatory impact analysis, bureaucratic behavior, and public participation in regulatory processes.
Citizenship: U.S. Citizen
“Regulation-Driven Innovations: A Textual Analysis of U.S. Patents and Federal Regulations,” job market paper.
“The Economic Impact of Uncertainty about U.S. Regulations of the Energy Sector,” with Xiaohan Ma, revised & resubmitted at Economic Inquiry.
“Sentiment and Uncertainty about Regulation,” with Tara M. Sinclair, submitted (under review).
“Regulatory Impact Analysis and Litigation Risk,” with Christopher Carrigan and Jerry Ellig, Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, First View, 2024, pp. 1-19.
“Notice the Comment? Chinese Government Responsiveness to Public Participation in the Policymaking Process,” with Steven J. Balla, Andrew Wan, Yat To Yeung, and Geng Zhai, Governance, Early View, 2024.
“The Durability of Governance Reform: A Two-Wave Audit of Notice and Comment Policymaking in China,” with Steven J. Balla, Regulation & Governance, Vol 17, Issue 2, 2023, pp. 549-569.
“Nudging the Nudger: Toward a Choice Architecture for Regulators,” with Susan E. Dudley, Regulation & Governance, Vol 16, Issue 1, 2022, pp. 261-273.
“Online Consultation and the Institutionalization of Transparency and Participation in Chinese Policymaking,” with Steven J. Balla, The China Quarterly, Vol 246, June 2021, pp. 473-496.
“Consultation as Policymaking Innovation: Comparing Government Transparency and Public Participation in China and the United States,” with Steven J. Balla, Journal of Chinese Governance, Vol 5, Issue 4, 2020, pp. 525-545.
“Designing a Choice Architecture for Regulators,” with Susan E. Dudley, Public Administration Review, Vol 80, Issue 1, 2019, pp. 151-156.
“China’s Carbon Emissions Trading: Lessons from the Pilot Systems,” Policy Perspectives, Vol 23, 2016, pp. 94-122.
"Biden’s Spring 2024 Unified Agenda," GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, July 10, 2024
"Regulating Blockchain and Crypto via Novel Legislation or Rulemaking," with Henry Hirsch, GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, June 21, 2024
"A Regulatory Surge in April 2024," GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, May 10, 2024Podcast
"2023 Regulatory Year In Review," with Mark Febrizio and Sarah Hay, GW Regulatory Studies Center Regulatory Insight, January 10, 2024Podcast
"Biden's Fall 2023 Unified Agenda," GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, December 11, 2023Podcast
"Comparing the Draft and Final Circular A4," with Mark Febrizio and Sarah Hay, GW Regulatory Studies Center Regulatory Insight, November 10, 2023Podcast
"Care to Comment? Topics Discussed in Revised Circular A4 Public Comments," with Sarah Hay and Henry Hirsch, GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, July 12, 2023
"Biden’s Spring 2023 Unified Agenda," GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, June 20, 2023Podcast
"Circular A-4: A Comparison between the 2023 Draft and the 2003 Circular," with Sarah Hay, GW Regulatory Studies Center Regulatory Insight, June 16, 2023
"Regulatory Uncertainty Amid the Banking Crisis," GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, April 6, 2023
"2022 Regulatory Year In Review," with Mark Febrizio, GW Regulatory Studies Center Regulatory Insight, January 25, 2023Podcast
"Biden’s Fall 2022 Unified Agenda," GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, January 9, 2023
"The Trend and Fluctuations in News Attention to Regulation," GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, September 7, 2022
"Biden's Spring 2022 Unified Agenda," with Mark Febrizio & Laura Stanley, GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, June 30, 2022
"The Unintended Consequences of Banking Regulations: Shadow Banking," GW Regulatory Studies Center Regulatory Insight, May 25, 2022
"Comparing Regulatory Uncertainty with Other Policy Uncertainty Measures," GW Regulatory Studies Center Regulatory Insight, February 2, 2022
"2021 Regulatory Year in Review: Ten Important Regulatory and Deregulatory Developments," with Mark Febrizio, GW Regulatory Studies Center Regulatory Insight, January 19, 2022
"Notice and Comment Policymaking in China: What Has Changed at the Vanguard?," with Steven J. Balla, GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, October 20, 2021
"A Midyear Review of Regulatory Sentiment and Uncertainty," GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, August 18, 2021
"Regulation and Jobs: The Unequal Employment Effects of Regulatory Uncertainty," GW Regulatory Studies Center Regulatory Insight, April 28, 2021
"Regulatory Sentiment and Uncertainty under the Trump Administration," GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, February 10, 2021
“2020 Regulatory Year in Review: Ten Important Regulatory and Deregulatory Developments,” with Mark Febrizio, GW Regulatory Studies Center Regulatory Insight, January 13, 2021.
"Public Commenting with the New Regulations.gov API," GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, September 9, 2020
"Regulation during COVID-19: News Sentiment Improved, While Uncertainty Remains," GW Regulatory Studies Center Regulatory Insight, July 6, 2020
"Regulatory Policy Uncertainty under COVID-19," GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, May 13, 2020
"Using Comments as Data for Research," GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, April 13, 2020
"GSA Moving to Deal with Mass and Fake Comments," GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, February 11, 2020
“2019 Year in Review: Top Ten Regulatory Developments,” with Mark Febrizio, GW Regulatory Studies Center Regulatory Insight, January 22, 2020.
“Bounded Rationality in the Rulemaking Process,” GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, July 23, 2019.
“Research Brief: Why Should We Focus on the Form of Regulation?,” GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, June 12, 2019.
“The Eagle and the Dragon: Comparing Government Consultation and Public Participation between the US and China,” with Steve Balla, GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, March 27, 2019.
“2018 Year in Review: Top Ten Regulatory Developments,” with Mark Febrizio, GW Regulatory Studies Center Regulatory Insight, January 14, 2019.
“Executive Order 12866: Regulatory Principles Survive and Thrive for 25 Years,” with Mark Febrizio and Daniel R. Pérez, GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, September 26, 2018.
“Future of Regulation: Challenges and Opportunities from Emerging Technology,” with Mark Febrizio, GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, September 19, 2018.
“‘Behavioural Government:’ Implications for Regulator Behavior,” GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, September 5, 2018.
“A Taxonomy of Regulatory Forms,” with Daniel R. Pérez, GW Regulatory Studies Center Regulatory Insight, May 30, 2018.
“Book Review: Structured to Fail? Regulatory Performance under Competing Mandates. Carrigan, Christopher. New York: Cambridge University Press, (2017).,” Risk Analysis, Vol 38, Issue 5, pp. 1102-1103.
“Organizing Agencies to Promulgate Rules,” with Christopher Carrigan, GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, March 9, 2018.
“International Regulatory Indexes at a Glance,” GW Regulatory Studies Center Regulatory Insight, January 29, 2018.
“2017 Regulatory Year in Review,” with Sofie E. Miller, GW Regulatory Studies Center Regulatory Insight, December 18, 2017.
“President Trump’s Regulatory Budget Evaluated By Brookings,” GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, November 1, 2017.
“A Review of ‘Structured to Fail? Regulatory Performance under Competing Mandates’,” GW Regulatory Studies Center Commentary, October 10, 2017.
“Analyzing Public Comments to Inform Agency Regulatory Reform Efforts,” with Mark Febrizio, Daniel R. Pérez, and Aryamala Prasad, Report for GW Regulatory Studies Center & U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative Agreement 2017-18, March 31, 2020.
“The Relationship Between Regulatory Form & Productivity: An Empirical Application to Agriculture,” with Daniel R. Pérez, Aryamala Prasad, and Julie Balla, Report for GW Regulatory Studies Center & U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative Agreement 2017-18, June 12, 2019.
“Regulation and Agricultural Productivity in the U.S. and EU,” with Susan E. Dudley, Lydia Holmes, Peter Linquiti, Brian Mannix, Daniel R. Pérez, and Aryamala Prasad, Report for GW Regulatory Studies Center & U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative Agreement 2015-16, September 20, 2017.
New November 24, 2024: I will present "Regulation-Driven Innovations: A Textual Analysis of U.S. Patents and Federal Regulations” at the Southern Economic Association 94th Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.
October 7, 2022: I presented "Sentiment and Uncertainty about Regulation” at the Conference on Real-Time Data Analysis, Methods, and Applications in Cleveland, OH.Recording
June 9, 2022: I presented "Regulatory Impact Analysis and Litigation Risk” at the Jerry Ellig Memorial Conference in Arlington, VA.
March 22, 2022: I chaired a session at the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis Annual Conference (Virtual).
November 20, 2021: I organized a session and presented "Sentiment and Uncertainty about Regulation” at the Southern Economic Association 91st Annual Meeting in Houston, TX.
October 13, 2021: I presented "Sentiment and Uncertainty about Regulation” jointly with Tara Sinclair at the Pennsylvania State University Macro Seminar (Virtual).
May 12, 2021: I presented "Sentiment and Uncertainty about Regulation” at the ESCoE Conference on Economic Measurement 2021 (Virtual).SlidesRecording
May 6, 2021: I presented "Sentiment and Uncertainty about Regulation” at the Federal Forecasters Conference (Virtual).
April 1, 2021: I presented "Sentiment and Uncertainty about Regulation” at the forecasting seminar of GW's H. O. Stekler Research Program on Forecasting (Virtual).
November 21, 2020: I organized a session and presented "Sentiment and Uncertainty about Regulation” at the Southern Economic Association 90th Annual Meeting (Virtual).
November 12, 2020: I presented "Sentiment and Uncertainty about Regulation” at the 2020 Banca d’Italia and Federal Reserve Board Joint Conference on “Nontraditional Data & Statistical Learning with Applications to Macroeconomics” (Virtual).Recording
May 28, 2020: I presented "Regulatory Impact Analysis and Litigation Risk” at the Law and Society Association 2020 Annual Meeting (Virtual).
November 23, 2019: I presented “Regulatory Impact Analysis and Litigation Risk” at the Southern Economic Association 89th Annual Meeting in Fort Lauderdale FL.Slides
September 1, 2019: I presented “Examining the Lifecycle of a Rule: Legislation, Executive Review, and the Courts” at the American Political Science Association 115th Annual Meeting in Washington DC.Slides
June 1, 2019: I presented “Consultation, Participation, and the Institutionalization of Governance Reform in China” at the Law and Society Association 2019 Annual Meeting in Washington DC.Slides
April 7, 2019: I presented “Consultation, Participation, and the Institutionalization of Governance Reform in China” at the Midwest Political Science Association 77th Annual Meeting in Chicago IL.
March 15, 2019: I presented “Does the Form of Regulation Matter? An Empirical Analysis of Regulation and Land Productivity Growth” at the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis 11th Annual Meeting in Washington DC.Slides
November 20, 2018: I presented “Nudging the Nudger: Applying Behavioral Insights to Regulators” at the Southern Economic Association 88th Annual Meeting in Washington DC.Slides
May 24, 2018: I presented “Applying Behavioral Insights to Regulators” at the Public Administration Review Symposium on Behavioral Approaches to Bureaucratic Red Tape and Administration Burden in Washington DC.
March 16, 2018: I presented “Regulatory Impacts on Corn Farming: A Comparison between the United States and European Union” at the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis 10th Annual Meeting in Washington DC.Slides
The George Washington University, Washington DC
Expected 2025
The George Washington University, Washington DC
August 2020
The George Washington University, Washington DC
August 2016
Keio University, Japan
September 2012
Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China
June 2010
I'm proficient in multiple programming languages, machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), and two foreign languages.
805 21st Street, NW Washington, D.C., 20052