Jie Bai is an Associate Professor (without tenure) in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from MIT in June 2016, and spent one year at Microsoft Research New England prior to joining HKS in 2017. Jie's research focuses on firms and markets in developing countries and emerging economies, addressing two broad questions: First, what are the key barriers and constraints that hinder firm growth and upgrading in developing countries? Second, how can we structure effective policies to alleviate firm-level constraints and market frictions and facilitate private sector development?
Methodologically, she combines large-scale randomised control trials, quasi-experimental applied micro techniques, and structural modelling tools from industrial organisation and international trade.
Over the past ten years, Jie has conducted research in China, East Africa and Southeast Asia, where she has collaborated with governments and non-government organizations to design, implement and evaluate industrial, trade and development policies.
