Curriculum Vitae
Mengshan Zhao
PhD Candidate in Agricultural Economics
Washington State University
2020 NE Wilson Rd (Campus), Pullman, WA 99163
Education
Ph.D., Agricultural Economics, Washington State University, 2021–Present (expected 2026)
M.S., Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2019–2021
B.B.A. (Hons.), Applied Economics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, 2015–2019
Visiting Programs: University of California, Irvine; London School of Economics and Political Science
References
Chair: Seollee Park
Assistant Professor
School of Economic Sciences & Paul G. Allen School for Global Health
Washington State University
2020 NE Wilson Rd, Pullman, WA 99163
Email: seollee.park@wsu.edu
Phone: 509-335-8521
Shanthi Manian
Associate Professor
School of Economic Sciences & Paul G. Allen School for Global Health
Washington State University
Pullman, WA 99163
Email: shanthi.manian@wsu.edu
Phone: 509-335-8739
Benjamin Cowan
Professor
School of Economic Sciences
Washington State University
Pullman, WA 99163
Email: ben.cowan@wsu.edu
Phone: 509-335-2184
Gregmar I. Galinato
Professor
School of Economic Sciences
Washington State University
Pullman, WA 99163
Email: ggalinato@wsu.edu
Phone: 509-335-6382
Research Assistant Experience
Research Assistant, Prof. Seollee Park, Washington State University 2023–Present
Research Assistant, Prof. Jake Wagner, Washington State University 2022
Working Papers
Competing for Clean Air: Dynamic Incentives in China's Environmental Protection Interviews
03.2024 – CurrentExamines the Environmental Protection Interview (EPI) campaign-style environmental policy in China using near real-time air quality data and Difference-in-Differences approach. Finds that cities at risk of being interviewed achieve PM2.5 reductions of 15.7 μg/m³—nearly four times larger than previous estimates, with effects most pronounced at year-end coinciding with annual evaluations.
Assessing the Economic Impacts of Technological Intervention on Organic Vegetable Farm Profitability and Gender Roles in Organic Farming
Jun 2024 – Currentwith Prof. Galinato
Determines whether agricultural labor productivity across genders changes after introduction of organic vegetable technologies through a randomized controlled trial in the Philippines. Finds significant increases in female labor during fertilizer and pesticide application stages for low-income households and reductions in labor productivity gaps across all income groups.
Birth Timing Decisions, China's Two-Child Allowance, and Women's Human Capital
Jan 2023 – Currentwith Ben Cowan
Critically examines the decline in fertility rates in China using a two-stage, discrete-choice model that enables individuals to make fertility decisions based on utility maximization. Empirically validates the model using Chinese Family Panel Survey data from 2010 to 2020, elucidating the roles of human-capital accumulation returns, child value, time costs, and compliance penalties.
The Effects of a Psychological Support Intervention for Mothers on Children's Nutrition and Maternal Psychosocial Well-being
Jan 2023 – Currentwith Seollee Park and Jennifer Ostrowski
Examines the impacts of psychological support interventions on maternal mental health outcomes and child nutritional status through randomized controlled trial methodology with 800 caregivers.
The Impacts of COVID-19 on U.S. Containerized Agricultural Exports
Jan 2022with Jake Wagner, Eric Jessup, and Bart Kenner
Measures impacts of COVID-19 on monthly U.S. containerized agricultural export volumes using near-saturated fixed effects panel data model. Results show heterogeneous reductions through time: 4.6% reduction from March 2020-May 2021, 11.1% from May 2021-January 2022, with effects most pronounced across origin ports, commodities, and destination countries.
Optimal Pricing Policies for Campus Parking
Jan 2022with Jake Wagner and D. Moore
Develops economic models for optimizing campus parking pricing strategies to improve efficiency and accessibility.
Role of Public Sentiment in Evaluating Lockdown Effects on Mobility: An Application of Natural Language Processing Method
Sep 2020 – Currentwith Xiaorui Qu, Qinan Lu, Liufang Su and Gunning Shi
Investigates the influence of public sentiment and health policies on behavioral changes using daily COVID-related tweets and sentiment analysis through natural language processing. Employs Regression Discontinuity in Time Series (RDiT) method with county-level data from March to April 2020, finding that neutral-tone sentiment has the most pronounced negative impact on mobility.
Teaching Experience
Instructor, Washington State University Jan 2025 -- Jan 2026
- ECONS 320: Money and Banking (Online) — Course evaluations: 4.5/5
- ECONS 323: Labor Economics (Online) — Course evaluations: 4.5/5
- ECONS 335: Business Finance (Online) — Ongoing
- ECONS 426: Transportation Economics and Supply Chain Analysis (Online) — Ongoing
Teaching Assistant, Washington State University Sep 2021 -- Dec 2021
- ECONS 101: Fundamentals of Microeconomics
Conference Presentations
Competing for Clean Air: Dynamic Incentives in China's Environmental Protection Interviews
2025: Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AERE, May), Western Economic Association International (WEAI, June), WSU Student Seminar (Nov), selected for presentation at 2025 AAEA Annual Meeting
2024: Northwest Development Workshop (June 2024)
Optimal Pricing Policies for Campus Parking
Region 10 Transportation Conference (Oct 2022)
Awards & Fellowships
Felloni, Giorgio, and Luisa SES Fellowship, Washington State University
Professional Service
Volunteer, Social Platform Team — Committee on Women in Agricultural Economics (CWAE)
Research
Job Market Paper
When the Worst Compete: Strategic Responses to Environmental Protection Interviews in China
Draft available upon request
This paper explores the dynamic incentives embedded in ranking-based environmental governance, investigating how governments strategically respond to competitive performance evaluations. Using China's Environmental Protection Interview (EPI)—a high-profile, ranking-driven policy targeting underperforming cities—as an empirical case, I leverage high-frequency air-quality data and a difference-in-differences framework to analyze behavior under pressure. Contrary to existing literature, which typically estimates modest pollution reductions for formally sanctioned cities, my analysis shows that cities preemptively reduce PM2.5 by approximately 15.7 μg/m³, nearly four times prior estimates when facing the risk of evaluation sanctions. These reductions exhibit pronounced seasonality, peaking at evaluation periods, indicating short-term strategic efforts by local governments to enhance rankings. The policy also yields measurable healthcare cost savings primarily during narrow evaluation windows. Political factors shape these responses: cities with extensive elite ties intensify short term reductions around evaluation periods, whereas those near capital region oversight sustain steadier improvements throughout the year. Importantly, political connections shift effort across the calendar without increasing the total annual effect. A tournament model explains why elite ties and geographic adjacency generate different patterns by separating rank loss costs from pollution damage costs. Taken together, the findings highlight both the advantages and drawbacks of rank-ordered policy design and underscore the importance of aligning short-term incentives with long-term public-health goals.
Working Papers
Family Plans and Planning Policy: The Role of Women's Human Capital in Shaping China's Fertility Trends
with Benjamin Cowan, draft available upon request
This paper investigates the impact of women's higher education on fertility decisions in China, focusing on cohorts subject to the One-Child and Second-Child Policies. Using provincial per capita college access at age 17 as an instrument, we isolate exogenous variation in educational attainment stemming from centrally managed quota systems for university enrollment. Drawing on the 2020 China Family Panel Survey, our 2SLS estimates indicate that each additional year of education delays the age at first birth by 0.31 years and reduces total fertility by 0.085 children. We find no significant effect on childbearing within policy limits, but a sizable and significant decline in higher-order births that would violate family planning regulations. This pattern suggests that the channel through which education affects fertility operates primarily via increased compliance with population control policies, rather than shifts in preferences or biological constraints. Further analysis reveals that formal employment and institutional penalties—rather than monetary fines—are likely to mediate this compliance effect. Through this study, we contribute to the broader discourse on the socio-economic factors shaping reproductive behaviors in contemporary China, emphasizing the pivotal role of education in aligning individual fertility choices with national policy objectives.
Assessing the Impact of Organic Farm Training on Crop Productivity by Gender
with Shanthi Manian, Gregmar I. Galinato, Seollee Park, Suzette P. Galinato, Christian Paul L. Fang, Amelia Bello, Shaira Mae C. Calayugan, and Lorna Sister
The objective of this article is to determine the impact of teaching organic vegetable technology interventions on household labor use and labor productivity across genders. We conduct a randomized controlled trial where we introduce household organic vegetable training to vegetable farmers in rural farm households in the Philippines. We find a (1) significant increase in female labor man-days and workers attributed to the organic vegetable technology intervention during the fertilizer, pesticide, and, to a lesser extent, harvesting stages of production for low wealth households and farms that plant multiple types of vegetables. When we(2) examine the high wealth households and those that plant only one type of crop, the effect of the intervention on female labor is either negative or insignificant. The difference in impact of the intervention by wealth is likely due to the low wealth households employing labor intensive agricultural technology while high wealth households employ capital intensive technology. Prior to the intervention, male household labor productivity is larger than female household labor productivity. After the intervention, there was a reduction in the gender labor productivity gap for low wealth households but the impact is not significant. Our results point to the potential for introducing organic technology and practices during the entire production process as a means of reducing the gender labor productivity gap for low-wealth households that utilize labor-intensive agricultural technology.
Work in Progress
Addressing Maternal Mental Health and Child Undernutrition in Nigeria through Psychological Support
with Seollee Park and Jennifer Ostrowski
Maternal mental health is a serious yet neglected challenge in developing countries, with depression rates ranging from 15–57% globally. Poor maternal mental health undermines childcare, feeding practices, and women's empowerment, with cascading effects on children's nutrition and development. This study investigates whether integrating psychological support into nutrition programs can improve both maternal and child outcomes. We implement a randomized controlled trial in Gombe State, Nigeria, where mothers of acutely malnourished children under five who exhibit at least mild depressive symptoms are offered Problem Management Plus (PM+), a WHO-designed, low-intensity psychological intervention focused on stress management and problem-solving skills. The intervention is delivered alongside the government's community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) program. We measure impacts across six domains: maternal psychosocial wellbeing, caregiving, child feeding, child development, child nutrition, and child health. To probe mechanisms, we also assess changes in women's empowerment, decision-making power, cognitive and socio-emotional skills, and intra-household dynamics including intimate partner violence. To date, we have screened over 5,400 caregivers, enrolling 754 caregiver–child pair. Baseline surveys are complete, and endline data collection has been completed for 562 of the enrolled caregiver. The project provides timely evidence on whether scaling psychological support through existing nutrition platforms can improve maternal and child health at low cost in resource-constrained settings.
Organic Farming Training, Child Nutrition, and Intra-Household Mechanisms in Rural Philippines
with Shanthi Manian, Gregmar I. Galinato, Seollee Park, Suzette P. Galinato, Christian Paul L. Fang, Amelia Bello, Shaira Mae C. Calayugan, and Lorna Sister
This project is embedded within a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in rural Philippines. We examine the impacts of organic farming technology training on child anthropometric and nutritional outcomes, focusing on the causal pathways through which such effects may arise. Using experimental household decision-making games, we construct an intra-household bargaining power index and analyze shifts in expenditures and time allocation as potential mechanisms linking training adoption to improvements in child well-being. Our results indicate that, while the intervention shows no significant effect on child outcomes for intention-to-treat (ITT) effect, local average treatment effect (LATE) estimates suggest meaningful impacts among households that adopt the technologies.
Other Publications and Projects
Role of Public Sentiment in Evaluating Lockdown Effects on Mobility: An Application of the Natural Language Processing Method
with Xiaorui Qiu, Qinan Lu, Liufang Su, and Guanming Shi; under review at Economic Modelling
This study uses county-level COVID-19 tweet sentiment (March–April 2020) to evaluate lockdown effects on mobility. Employing a Regression Discontinuity in Time model, we find lockdowns reduced mobility by 5.5% for about 10 days, with neutral-tone sentiment exerting the strongest negative impact on mobility indices. Results highlight the role of public sentiment in evaluating policy effects.
The Impacts of COVID-19 on Containerized Agricultural Exports
with Jake Wagner, Eric Jessup, and Ben Kenner
Analyzes the disruptions of COVID-19 on U.S. agricultural container exports, focusing on logistics bottlenecks and supply chain resilience.
Optimal Pricing Policies for Campus Parking
with Jake Wagner and David Moore; draft available upon request
Explores efficient pricing structures for campus parking to balance demand management, revenue generation, and equity concerns.