Yizhou Jin
I am an economist. I study how data and AI transform market failures, focusing on information asymmetry and imperfect competition in insurance and digital platforms. My work uses economic theory, large administrative datasets, structural econometrics, and field experiments.
I am Assistant Professor of Strategy and Economics at the University of Toronto. Previously, I was Gilbert Center Fellow at UC Berkeley and got my PhD from Harvard under Ariel Pakes and BA from Berkeley under David Romer. I am a 北京四中 alum.
Before academia, I worked in technology (Twitter, Lyft, Ant Group/Alibaba), finance (Citi, JPMorgan, Houlihan Lokey), and policy (RBA). I co-created Twitter Communities and Luohan Academy, designed telematics programs for usage-based auto insurance pricing and accident prevention, led an e-commerce training program for over two million new sellers, and executed tech IPOs and M&As.
Research
Published or Accepted
Buying Data from Consumers: The Impact of Monitoring in U.S. Auto Insurance
with Shoshana Vasserman.
Journal of Political Economy, conditionally accepted.
[Paper]
[NBER Digest]
[NBER SI IO/Digitization]
[Online Appendix]
Competing under Information Heterogeneity: Evidence from Auto Insurance
with Marco Cosconati, Yi Xin, and Fan Wu.
Review of Economic Studies, accepted.
[Paper]
[EC Extended Abstract]
[NBER SI IO]
[Online Appendix]
Working Papers
Re-examining Moral Hazard in Risky Driving: New Evidence from Behavioral Data in Auto Insurance
[SSRN]
[EC Extended Abstract]
Entry and Advertising on Digital Platforms: Evidence from a Large E-Commerce Platform
with Zhengyun Sun.
[SSRN]
[FTC]
[Utah WBEC 2024]
AI Training for Online Entrepreneurs: Evidence from a Large E-Commerce Experiment
with Zhengyun Sun.
[SSRN]
[NBER Economics of AI]
How to Prevent Traffic Accidents: AI and the “First-Best” Insurance Contract
with Thomas Yu.
[SSRN]
[NBER SI IT/Digitization]
Digital Platforms as Data Vendors: Evidence from a Large E-commerce Platform
with Zhengyun Sun.
[SSRN]
Teaching
Teaching Resources
Information Asymmetry
Model/Simulation:
[Adverse Selection & Signaling]
[Moral Hazard]
Application:
[Insurance]
[iBuyers]
[Platforms]
Economics of AI
Model:
[Themes]
[Task vs System Views]
Application:
[Healthcare]
[Automation]
Advising
PhD
Andrew Paulley (committee member)
Undergraduate
Ishaan Gupta (family office);
Jacob Kyi (Studienstiftung);
Yiming Zhong (Private Equity);
Hannah Zeyu Zhang (MIT Master);
Frank Vergara (Samsung);
Naomi Dong (Deloitte);
Patrick Wei (Yale SOM MBA);
Giada Rosa Bernardins (Esade Barcelona MBA)
CDL Risk Startups
Federato ($15M Series A);
iink Payments ($6M Seed);
Protosure ($3M Seed);
Birdseyeview Technology (£250K Seed);
Cooper Pet Care (€600K Seed)
My Mentors
Berkeley
Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas,
Ben Handel,
Jon Kolstad,
Martha Olney,
David Romer,
Steven Tadelis
Harvard
Leemore Dafny,
Nathan Hendren,
Robin Lee,
Ariel Pakes,
Dennis Yao
Other Work
Rotman EAP Seminar co-organizer, 2022–present.
Discussion of Li and Zheng (2025): “Experience Rating and Moral Hazard in Insurance Markets”
NBER Insurance Working Group Meeting, May 2025.
[Slides]
Discussion of Demirer, Jiménez-Hernández, Li, and Peng (2023): “Data, Privacy Laws and Firm Production: Evidence from the GDPR”
AEA Annual Meeting, January 2024.
[Slides]
“Telematics Data in U.S. Auto Insurance”
IVASS, December 2022.
[Slides]
Discussion of Cosconati (2021): “The Effect of Insurance Telematics and Financial Penalties on Market-wide Moral Hazard”
NBER Insurance Working Group Meeting, October 2021.
[Slides]
IB Deals — IPO: Palo Alto Networks, zulily, GrubHub, Guidewire, Rocket Fuel. M&A: GrubHub/Seamless, Permira/Genesys, 3M/Nanosys.