In Memoriam

YingHua He, an associate professor of economics at Rice University, passed away July 2, 2024.

YingHua He joined Rice University's Economics Department in 2016 and was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure in 2022. He earned his PhD from Columbia University in 2011 and served as an assistant professor at the Toulouse School of Economics from 2010 to 2016, where he continued to be an associate member after moving to Rice. He also held affiliated researcher status at Institut des Politiques Publiques and undertook visiting positions at the Paris School of Economics, Columbia University, and Stanford University.

His research, spanning from theoretical models to empirical studies, focused on improving the efficiency and fairness of matching mechanisms used in various applications such as school assignments and college admissions.

YingHua's work addressed the challenge of eliciting true preferences in market participants without direct observation, using methods from microeconomic theory, laboratory experiments, and structural estimation. His research highlighted that assumptions of full information and rationality often did not hold in practical settings, necessitating the development of new methodologies. For instance, he showed through his studies in both Beijing and Paris that traditional models assuming truth-telling may not accurately reflect real-world behavior, advocating instead for approaches that accommodated the strategic behavior and limited information of participants.

Central to YingHua's contributions was his exploration of preference estimation under various market mechanisms, such as the deferred acceptance or Boston algorithms. His findings underscored the importance of designing mechanisms that were resistant to manipulation and promoted desirable outcomes like equity and efficiency. Through his influential papers, he significantly influenced the field of school choice economics, challenging conventional assumptions and proposing innovative solutions based on empirical evidence and rigorous theoretical analysis.

Please see his research statement to read YingHua’s description of his own scholarly work.