Dr Chau M. Chu is the Policy Fellow for West Yorkshire and provides data and quantitative analyses for West Yorkshire Combined Authority to support the delivery of strategic local plans.
As the Y-PERN Policy Fellow for West Yorkshire, Chau is responsible for…
Providing data and quantitative analyses for West Yorkshire Combined Authority in delivering strategic local plans. She has been working closely with the academic team based at the Department of Economics, University of Leeds, and other Y-PERN partners to deliver regional reports. Her policy work on a range of topics such as nowcasting West Yorkshire economic outputs and housing retrofit have successfully contributed to place-based evidence-informed policymaking in the region.
Chau is most looking forward to…
Gaining wider understandings of the region’s evolution, its strengths/weaknesses as well as its placed-based characteristics, to further support policy interventions of West Yorkshire authorities. Chau also aims to ensure academic rigour in terms of data and evidence-based analysis. Reflecting on her experience of producing regional economic nowcasts as per requests by West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Mayor of West Yorkshire, Chau believes that the knowledge exchange generated has increased local authorities’ evaluation capacity and has enabled policy interventions which draw on a strong evidence base.
Chau’s key areas of focus are…
Regional development, regional institutions, and financial economics. Her policy work is mainly focused on regional economic nowcasts and housing retrofit. Her academic research focuses on understanding the impacts of financial behaviour and regional institutions on business performance and regional development. Capitalising on her experience in terms of both academic and policy work, she adds value to Y-PERN by addressing the research needs of West Yorkshire Combined Authority in order to identify other critical issues for future regional policy.
Chau joins us with a background in…
Economics and applied econometrics. She obtained her PhD degree in Economics from the University of Leeds in 2021 before joining the Y-PERN. Since her PhD, she has been involved in several research projects which use econometrics and geospatial techniques to analyse region- or firm-level large-scale datasets.
