Academic profile

 

Dr Jerry Chen studies the determinants of regional inequalities. He is especially interested in the relationship between the built environment and subjective wellbeing. Using a quasi-experimental approach to establish and quantify the causal pathways, Jerry applies a combination of econometrics and machine learning methods. An example of what he seeks to answer is “All else equal, does moving from the city centre to the countryside make one happier?”. He also studies how remote working impacts the spatial and temporal organisation of cities, and its implications on workers’ subjective wellbeing.

 

As a researcher for ai@cam, the University’s flagship mission on artificial intelligence, Jerry works on helping the public sector make use of AI in a fair, ethical, and effective manner. Further to this, he is working on extending economic models with language-model-based synthetic agents.

 

Jerry is a Bye-Fellow of Queens’ College.

 

 

 

 

Teaching

 

Jerry is lecturing and supervising Paper 10 The Built Environment and Paper 11 Land and Urban Economics. He will also be teaching quantitative research methods to Tripos and MPhil students.

 

 

 

 

 

Research interests

 

Regional Inequality, Causal Inference, Wellbeing Science, Time Use Research, Quasi-experimental Design, Machine Learning, Urban Planning, Urban Modelling.

 

Publications

 

  1. Chen, Jerry and Wan, Li, Remote Working and Experiential Wellbeing: A Latent Lifestyle Perspective using UK Time Use Survey Before and During COVID-19 (July 24, 2024). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0305096. PLOS ONE.
  2. Chen, Jerry and Wan, Li, Counterfactuals for SWB Panel Data: Integrated Application of Statistical Ensemble and Machine Learning Methods (July 30, 2023). https://icml.cc/virtual/2023/workshop/21482. 40th International Conference on Machine Learning.
  3. Chen, Jerry and Wan, Li, Causality Between the Built Environment and Subjective Wellbeing: Applying Difference-in-Differences and Synthetic Control Methods to Longitudinal Data from England (April 24, 2023). http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4430978. International Association for Applied Econometrics Annual Meeting.
  4. Wan, Li and Chen, Jerry, Flexible Working and the Future of Urban Mobility: A Novel Conceptual Framework, in: Pandemic Recovery? Reframing and Rescaling Societal Challenges. Edward Elgar, pp. 267–289 (January 5, 2024). ISBN: 978 1 80220 110 9.

 

 

 

Category/Classification

 

Regional & Urban Economics, Planning & Housing

 

 

Research Centres