Ziyi Chen

Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics

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Total Citations

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About

Ziyi Chen is a rising scholar in international trade and industrial economics, with a focused research agenda on the intersection of automation, firm behavior, and global competitiveness. Her work examines how technological adoption—particularly robotics—reshapes trade patterns and production sophistication. In her most-cited paper, "Robot adoption and export sophistication: Firm-level evidence from China" (2025), Chen provides novel micro-level evidence linking automation to the upgrading of export quality and complexity. Using detailed Chinese firm data, she demonstrates that robot adoption drives firms toward higher-value, more technologically advanced exports, offering critical insights into the mechanisms behind China’s shifting position in global value chains. Though early in her career, Chen’s research has already garnered attention, with her flagship study accumulating 8 citations and sparking discussion among trade and labor economists. Her work is particularly relevant for understanding how developing economies can leverage automation to climb the export ladder, and it contributes to ongoing debates about the labor market and trade implications of Industry 4.0. Chen’s findings carry significant policy implications, suggesting that targeted automation support may enhance national competitiveness without necessarily displacing workers in the short run.