Dr Jen-Chung Mei

Profile

I am a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Digital Economy at the School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London. I am also an affiliated researcher at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge. Before joining Queen Mary, I worked at the University of Westminster Business School as a Lecturer in Economics (2023–2025), at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge as a Research Associate (2021–2023), and at the National University of Ireland, Galway as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2019–2021). I completed my PhD in Economics at the University of Sheffield in 2019 and my MSc in Economics at the University of Manchester in 2015.

Teaching

BUS 366 Business Simulation
BUS 158 Fundamentals of International Business

Research

Research Interests:

My research interests lie in Applied Economics, with topics including foreign direct investment, economic growth/productivity, and the mobility of international scientists. I focus in particular more on foreign acquisition (productivity spillovers) and firm-level TFP/Markups.

Centre and Group Membership

• Affiliated Researcher – Bennett School for Public Policy, University of Cambridge
• Research Member – Productivity Institute, University of Manchester
• Centre for Globalisation Research

Publications

Selected Publications

• Estimating Star Arrival Effects When Intensity of Treatment Varies with Relatedness to the Star - Journal of Human Capital, SSRN  (Forthcoming)
• Stars as Catalysts: An Event-Study Analysis of the Impact of Star-Scientist Recruitment on Local Research Performance in a Small Open Economy, 2023 @ Journal of Economic Geography  academic.oup.com/joeg/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jeg/lbac016/6606125?searchresult=1
• Recent Trends in Firm-Level Total Factor Productivity in the United Kingdom: New Measures, New Puzzles. 2024, @ Economica  https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12541 (slides here)
• Diagnosing the UK Productivity Slowdown: Which Sectors Matter and Why? 2023 @ Economica  https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12459
• Refining vertical productivity spillovers from FDI: Evidence from 32 economies. 2021 @ International Review of Economics & Finance  papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4076275 
• Embodied and Disembodied FDI Spillovers and Distance from the Educational Frontier. 2023 @ Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade  link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10842-023-00397-z 
• Foreign Direct Investment and Relative Capacity: Theory and Evidence. 2023 @ Economics of Transition  https://doi.org/10.1111/ecot.12369 
• Core Product Competence and Productivity Gains: The Role of Foreign Ownership. 2023 @ International Review of Applied Economics  doi.org/10.1080/02692171.2023.2210513 
• Gender, Firm Performance, and FDI supply-purchase Spillovers in Emerging Markets. 2023 @ International Economics https://doi.org/10.1016/j.inteco.2023.06.002 

Supervision

I am interested in supervising PhD students whose research aligns with applied economics and econometrics, particularly in areas such as firm-level productivity (TFP and markups), foreign direct investment (FDI) and its productivity spillovers, economic growth, and the mobility of international scientists. I welcome motivated candidates committed to producing research that advances both scholarly understanding and real-world economic policy—especially in the areas of the digital economy, international investment, and productivity measurement.