Wenchen Wang

Wenchen Wang is an Industry Assistant Professor of Business Economics at Illinois Institute of Technology’s Stuart School of Business and a Research Affiliate at West Virginia University’s Knee Regulatory Research Center. Before joining Illinois Tech, she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She earned her Ph.D. in Public Affairs, with a graduate minor in Applied and Labor Economics, from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities in 2023. 

Wang’s research focuses on:

• How labor-market institutions, including occupational licensing and unions, affect conventional labor-market outcomes such as wages, working hours, and employment;
• How these institutions shape broader dimensions of job quality, including job security, benefits, autonomy, advancement opportunities, and meaningful work; and
• How public policies can promote more equitable labor-market outcomes across gender and racial groups.

She is also committed to developing innovative datasets that support policy-relevant research. Working with the Knee Regulatory Center at the West Virginia University, she contributed significantly to the Occupational Licensing Law Research Project (OLLRP), a comprehensive, publicly available dataset documenting occupational licensing requirements in state statutes and regulations.
Her research has been published in Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society and Labor Studies Journal. She also contributes to the profession as an ad hoc referee for journals including American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Labour Economics, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Public Choice, and Economic Development Quarterly.

Wang has diversified policy, experience on labor economics-related topics at different levels of public and governmental sectors, including:

• She collaborated with the Illinois Department of Labor in 2024 on a project relating to the Illinois Equal Pay Act.
• She received the 2022 Summer Fellowship from the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO), Department of Labor to work on collective bargaining agreement (CBA) related research.
• She worked as a data and policy analyst at the Licensing and Background Studies divisions, Minnesota Department of Human Services from 2017–18.
• She collaborated with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and evaluated the economic effects of the Humphrey-Hawkins Act (1975) from 2016–17. 

She also worked with other governmental agencies and nonprofit organizations, including Hennepin County and the Volcker Alliance.

Education

Ph.D. Public Affairs, University of Minnesota Twin Cities
M.P.P. Advanced Policy Analysis, University of Minnesota Twin Cities
B.A. English, Sichuan International Studies University

Research Interests

Labor economics
Applied econometrics and causal inference
Public policy
Employment and industrial relations
Data analytics and data quality

Publications

Wang, W., Choi, H., & Golden, L. (2026). Job quality unpacked: Dimensions and determinants. Labor Studies Journal, 51(2), 105–141.

Kleiner, M. M., & Wang, W. (2025). The labor market effects of occupational licensing in the public sector. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 65(2), 200–229.

Wang, W. (2023). Examining Illinois wage gaps, 2018–2022: Gender and race differences matter. Illinois Labor and Employment Relations.

Wang, W. (2024). Universal licensing recognition law: Whether Illinois should adopt it. Illinois Labor and Employment Relations.

Wang, W., Golden, L., Choi, H., Bellisle, D., Dickson, A., & Bruno, R. (2024). What makes a good job? Employment quality in Illinois, Wave 2.0. Illinois Labor and Employment Relations.

Affiliations

Master of Public Administration 
Undergraduate Programs in Business