Yu Zheng is Professor of Economics at the School of Economics and Finance, Queen Mary University of London. Her research focuses on economic growth, development, and inequality, with particular emphasis on the role of micro-level heterogeneity in shaping aggregate outcomes. In her current work, she combines individual- and firm-level administrative data with survey data to examine how human capital and intangible capital influence aggregate productivity and inequality.

Her research has been published in Econometrica, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, and the International Economic Review, among others. She is a Humboldt Experienced Research Fellow, and a former Leverhulme International Fellow and Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute.