•Press Release Health and Social Programs Poverty United States Workers
Washington DC — The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) is pleased to announce the addition of Yixia Cai as an economist on our domestic team.
Cai is a PhD candidate in social welfare with a minor in public affairs at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where she is a graduate research fellow with the Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP). Her areas of research include poverty, economic inequality and instability, low-income working families, and social policy.
“Yixia has very strong data skills, including proficiency with SIPP, and already has an impressive list of publications and papers on a range of poverty, child welfare, and related labor market issues that will greatly expand CEPR’s work in those areas,” said CEPR Co-Director, Eileen Appelbaum.
Cai has provided statistical analyses for numerous projects at IRP and contributed to reports for the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. Her current projects examine how employment instability impacts families with children, using both nationally representative survey data and state administrative data. Another line of her research investigates the anti-poverty effects of safety net programs and their relationship with the life circumstances of low-income families. Her recent co-authored paper documents the US’s deep child poverty in a comparative context and how social programs could mitigate child poverty.
“I am honored for this opportunity to join CEPR, which plays a crucial role in advocating for workers’ rights in the US and abroad,” said Cai. “I am hoping to leverage my training on poverty studies and social policy to further improve individual, family, and child well-being.”
Previously, Cai was a lecturer at Columbia University. She also worked as a research assistant at Columbia Population Research Center on the NYC Poverty Tracker project and was a member of a joint research team between UNICEF and the LIS Cross-National Data Center focusing on child poverty and social protection.
Cai holds an MSW concentrating in social policy and practice from Columbia University and an MSc in urban studies from University College London.
