WELCOME

Here, you will find information about Zhengyuan Gao's academic-related materials, including his recent research thoughts, various syllabi, and more.


Curriculum Vitae

CV in pdf

(Version: 2024-06-12)


Current Roles

Sept 2019 - Now: Artist and independent scholar

Current Interests

Market prices, complex systems, quantitative socio-economics, political economy, cultural and monetary economics

Previous Roles

Oct 2014- Aug 2019: Chargé de cours of Econometrics at CORE, Université catholique de Louvain

Sept 2012- Sept 2014: Associate Professor of Economics at RIEM, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics

Jan 2013- Jun 2014: Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics at Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa

Sept 2010- Jun 2011: Rubicon Post-doctoral Scholar at Cowles Foundation, Yale University


Researchable Thoughts

This section presents my research work, focusing on both recent thoughts as well as previous papers that provide context and understanding to my current work.

Publications

Yet Another Model on Contemporary Art Market

The inspiration for this paper emerged from my deep engagement with various texts exploring the use of symbols in religion and societal practices. Through this exploration, I began to perceive how contemporary art has, in many aspects, assumed roles traditionally held by religious institutions, including functions such as community unification, existential exploration, and the creation of societal commentaries.
Link

Veiled Visions: Exploring Mystical Fusion in Art with a Glimpse into China's Esoteric Evolution (in Chinese)

This article delves into the presence of mysticism within artistic endeavors, with a particular focus on its distinct evolution in China. By delineating the fundamental traits of mysticism and its intersections with art, the paper offers a succinct overview of how mysticism's three dimensions—negative theology, tacit knowledge, and scientific temperament—find expression within the realm of artistic creation. It scrutinizes how mysticism permeates art, shedding light on its embodiment and impact.
Link

Looking Forward and Looking Backward

To date, this stands as my sole econometrics paper that has been published. The initial draft was completed during my visit to the Cowles Foundation in 2011. For those interested, the early version of the paper can be found here. Notably, the older edition contains additional discussions regarding the fundamental issue of employing numerical expectations in economic models.
Link to the publication
Download the old version

Recent papers

A New Form of Time Hegemony: Some Thoughts about AI Advancement in the Varieties of Capitalism

The paper was originally written in response to a call for a special issue on AI and economics. Despite undergoing a 6-month review, it was regrettably not accepted for publication, leaving it without a clear direction. In light of this, I decided to publish it on my webpage. While the content may not fall within my area of expertise, I believe it could serve as a stepping stone for further explorations in related fields.
Download

Old Stuff

An Imaginary Realistic Market

In this paper, I show how imaginary values intertwine with real prices, generating sequential forces that sway market participants' beliefs. These heterogeneous beliefs, in turn, direct the market's movements, creating images that may or may not be foreseen but have tangible consequences in reality.
Link to the paper
Download
Slides for the presentation of the paper

Uncertainty in Economic Growth and Inequality

This paper aims for the consilience of several puzzles regarding growth, beginning by unraveling the uncertainty's causality inherent in growth and inequality fundamentals. It then establishes aggregation laws that reveal invariance principles among diverse individuals. Finally, it reconstructs metric models to uncover deeper structural connections using U.S. GDP and income data.
Link to the paper
Download
Slides for the presentation of the paper

Pedagogical Thoughts

As a former educator, I am passionate about sharing knowledge and fostering learning. In this section, you can access a collection of my general teaching materials.

Project XXII

An Online Syllabus for Quantitative Socio-Economics

The project aims to construct a comprehensive quantitative system for categorising relations in socio-economics. However, I suspect that the current milieux are not ready for the emergence of such a system. The project has lain dormant since 2022. Following the link, you will find the finished part of the project.
Link

Old Teaching Materials

Time Series

The slides (LECON 2031) were developed from the courses I taught to master's students in economics. Later on, more advanced material was incorporated into a specialised topic course (LECON 2601) focused on econometrics.
Link

Mathematical Analysis for Students in Economics

The syllabi were used for giving a mathematical introduction to Ph.D. students in economics. It covered some basic concepts of analysis, real analysis, statistics, probability and partial differential equations.
Download (analysis, statistics and probability)
Download (partial differential equations)

Applied Econometrics

The slides (Topic 1-6 and LECON 2601) were for the topic courses specialised in econometrics. The courses covered applied topics in both macro- and micro-econometrics.
Link

Blog

I share some random thoughts in my blog.

My intention is to create a platform for sharing some of my raw ideas. While many of these ideas may only have vague or irregular connections with my research topics, they serve as prototypes for concepts eventually developed in my papers. If you are curious and wish to explore these raw materials, I welcome you to visit my blog without hesitation.

Link to my blog