Welcome, RIES Research Officer Annie (Yazhuo) Pan!

December 14, 2020 by CIRHR Communications

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Annie (Yazhuo) Pan, Research Officer for the Research Initiative on Education + Skills (RIES).

Annie will be working with Associate Professor Elizabeth Dhuey (Academic Director of RIES) and Assistant Professor Brad Seward (RIES Project Director), exploring the gender inequality in the labour market and STEM fields.

 “We have an idea of utilizing rich information from PIAAC [OECD’s Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies] and LISA [Statistic’s Canada’s Longitudinal and International Study of Adults] to explore whether working women are less likely than men to take part in an employer granted job-related education/training. If it is true, is this gender inequality phenomenon more significant in the STEM industry than non-STEM industry?”

Gender inequality is at the root of Annie’s interest in labour economics.

“Gender inequality in the labour market is one of the most pressing challenges facing the world of work today. Women are substantially less likely than men to participate in the labour market, especially among STEM-related fields which are well-paid and male-dominated. This inspired me to investigate what certain economic variables or public policy reforms could influence women's labour market behaviours and what factors might affect the participation and retention of women in those well-paid and male-dominated occupations such as STEM.”

Photo of Annie Pan
Photo provided by Annie Pan.

Annie has a PhD from the Economics Department at the University of Waterloo. Her thesis, "Essays in Wealth Effect, Family Structure, and Female Labour Supply," (supervised by Professors Ana Ferrer and Stéphanie Lluis) analyzes “how unexpected changes in certain economic variables or in the legal environment, such as housing market shocks or marital policy reforms, affect the labour supply of Canadian women.”

While completing her PhD, Annie also worked as a research analyst at Statistics Canada and CPP Investments. She “collaborated with other professors and economists from Statistics Canada exploring how employment and earnings trajectories of immigrant women are affected by life events (such as the birth of the first and subsequent children), and how these effects might differ for immigrant and non-immigrant women.”

With Kate Rybczynski (Associate Professor, University of Waterloo), Annie received a HeForShe Gender Equity Research Grant to explore factors influencing retention and advancement of women in STEM, including the retention effects of a family-related policy reform that shifted bargaining power toward women and counteracts traditional attitudes of male-female family obligations. 

Publications

  • Lluis, Stephanie, and Yazhuo Pan. "Marital Property Laws and Women’s Labour Supply." Canadian Public Policy 46.3 (2020): 340-368.
  • Ferrer, Ana, and Yazhuo Pan. "Divorce, Remarriage and Child Cognitive Outcomes: Evidence from Canadian Longitudinal Data of Children." Journal of Divorce & Remarriage 61.8 (2020): 636-662.
  • "Family, Work and Income Trajectories of Women Immigrants in Canada" (collaborated with Martin Cooke, Marie Mélanie Fontaine, and Kate Rybczynski). Report submitted to Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE) in March 2020.

Away from research, Annie says her favourite things to do are reading, exploring the world, and “enjoying all the little things and simple moments with my little girl and my family!”

While we can’t do so in person just yet, please join us in extending a very warm welcome to Annie as she begins her new role at the CIRHR!

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