Jason Ye

About

Undergraduate in Mathematics & Economics and Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis.

Background

I grew up in Beijing and came to St. Louis in 2024 to study at Washington University, where I am reading for an A.B. in Mathematics & Economics, with a specialization in financial economics, and in Political Science. In the summer of 2025 I studied the economics of growth and development and the political economy of natural resource management at Pembroke College, Cambridge.

Research

I am interested in how environmental and energy policy is made and whom it reaches: the economics of pollution and climate adaptation, environmental law, and the institutions that shape unequal exposure to environmental harm. My training so far has been in applied quantitative work, through coursework in econometrics, probability, and research design, and through research assistantships.

At Washington University I work with Shiran Victoria Shen at the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy, on a project in climate politics, and with Peng Peng and Christy Qiu in the Department of Political Science, on leadership transitions since 1946.

In the summer of 2026 I joined the Environmental & Energy Economics Research Training Program at the University of Virginia's Environmental Inequality Lab, a ten-week program hosted by the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and led by Jay Shimshack and Jonathan Colmer. After a research bootcamp in data management, reproducible coding, and the responsible use of AI tools, I worked on the RCRA Data Infrastructure Project, building analysis-ready data from the Environmental Protection Agency's Resource Conservation and Recovery Act records on hazardous waste. The Batten School has written about the program here.

Beyond research

I volunteer with Heart for the Unhoused on its Law, Public Policy, and Housing Database Project, sit on the Student Sustainability Board, and am a member of Pi Sigma Alpha. From 2024 to 2025 I was an analyst in the Washington University Student Investment Fund, on its Algo and Energy sector teams.

I read widely, in fiction and non-fiction, play basketball, and play the saxophone. I speak Mandarin and English, and some Italian and Spanish.

Contact