Yueyuan Ma

Yueyuan Ma is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), affiliated with the Department of Economics within the College of Letters & Science. Her research focuses on macroeconomics, economic growth, innovation, firm dynamics, trade, and labor economics. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania (2022), an M.A. in Economics from Tsinghua University (2016), and a B.A. in Economics and B.S. in Statistics from Peking University (2014).

Her work bridges theoretical and empirical approaches to study growth, inequality, and market structures. Notable contributions include analyzing digital advertising's macroeconomic impacts, the effects of premarital medical exams on marriage quality, and the consequences of U.S.-China trade policies on innovation divergence. She has been recognized with the William Polk Carey Prize (2022) and other prestigious fellowships.

• Teaching: Advanced Macroeconomic Theory (PhD), Intermediate Macroeconomics
• Professional Activities: Principal Investigator on NORC Data Enclave projects, Visiting Scholar at Federal Reserve Banks
• Research Grants: Kauffman Foundation support, U.S. Census data access

Her research lab explores knowledge production, entrepreneurship, and firm-level dynamics. Collaborations include the Aggregate Economics Consortium and the Consortium for Applied Research in Economics.