Hongdi Zhao

Hongdi Zhao is currently a PhD Student in Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University.

Zhao served as a research fellow at EPoD from 2018-2019 and then moved on to be a pre-doctoral associate at Inclusion Economics from 2019-2020. At IE, Zhao worked with Rohini Pande on projects related to financial inclusion, environmental health, and women’s economic empowerment in India. The hands-on research experience at EPoD/EGC provided her with the opportunity to work on large and multiple years of randomized control trials. After leaving Inclusion Economics at Yale in 2021, Zhao first joined International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) as a Research Analyst for one year. In 2022, Zhao joined Cornell Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management as a PhD student. She is currently in the second year of her PhD journey. 

I am really lucky to be part of EPoD/EGC and to have experience working with so many top development economists. The experience of working EPoD/EGC is an invaluable asset to my life and my career as a researcher.” – Hongdi Zhao