profile_picture
Zichen Deng
Assistant Professor of Economics University of Amsterdam
z.deng@uva.nl

I work in environmental, health, and development economics. I study how public policy shapes the environments people live in and what that means for their health and economic opportunities.

Publications

The Relationship Between Earnings and Sexual Orientation: First Evidence From China
ILR Review, forthcoming
with Weixiang Luo, Erik Plug, and Jia Yu
Paper
Why Life Gets Better After Age 50, for Some: Mental Well-Being and the Social Norm of Work
Journal of Labor Economics, 44(4): 1065-1087, 2026
with Coen van de Kraats, Titus Galama, and Maarten Lindeboom
Paper Online Appendix USC Dornsife
Aanvullend geboorteverlof minst gebruikt door lage én hoge inkomens
Additional Birth Leave Least Used by Both Low- and High-Income Fathers
ESB, 2026
with Coen van de Kraats (Microdata Access Grant 2023) (AUF Impact Grant 2025)
Paper More results MAG 2023
Informed Enforcement: Lessons From Pollution Monitoring in China
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 16(1), 2024
with Sebastian Axbard
Paper Online Appendix
A Bit of Salt, a Trace of Life: Gender Norms and the Impact of a Salt Iodization Program on Human Capital Formation
Journal of Health Economics, 83, 2022
with Maarten Lindeboom
Paper Online Appendix Chinese Summary
Early-Life Famine Exposure, Hunger Recall and Later-Life Health
Journal of Applied Econometrics, 37(4), 2022
with Maarten Lindeboom
Paper Online Appendix

Working Papers

China's Silver Linings Playbook: Evidence From 26,845 Cloud Seeding Operations
Working paper
with Michael Greenstone and Shaoda Wang
Land Rights and the Allocation of Talent
Working paper
with Yunyi Jin and Yun Xiao
Curriculum and Selection Into the Bureaucracy: Ideology, Information, or Strategic Choices
Working paper
with Sebastian Axbard
Moving to Cleaner Skies: Age-Specific Effects of Exposure to Pollution on Health and Human Capital
Working paper
with Aline Bütikofer and Kjell Salvanes
Revealed Preference or Forced to Leave: Internal Migration Responses to Pollution Information in China
R&R at EJ
with Ling Zhou
Paper