![Yuchen Feng](https://profiles-cardiff.imgix.net/attachments/3359?w=200&h=200&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&q=90")
Yuchen Feng
(he/him)
Teams and roles for Yuchen Feng
Graduate Tutor
Research student
Overview
Feng is a PhD student in Economics, funded by ESRC Wales DTP collaborative studentship with the Office for National Statistics. He is supervised by Professor Andrew Henley and Dr Anna Kochanova.
He mainly focuses on firm productivity in the UK with particular attention on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). He is trying to explain the productivity difference by innovation and management practices. His research is involving in some firm survey databases conducted by the ONS, such as the Annual Business Survey (ABS), the UK Innovation Survey (UKIS), and the Management and Expectations Survey (MES) etc. He has completed the Secure Research Service training as an Accredited Researcher at the ONS.
He completed the two training years of 2+2 PhD route at Cardiff Business School: MRes Advanced Economics with Merit in 2022 and MSc Economics with Distinction in 2021. Prior to PhD programme, he completed MSc Financial Economics with Distinction in 2020 at CARBS and Bachelor of Finance in 2018 at Harbin University of Commerce.
Alongside his academic studies, he has gained practical experience through internships at a Trust Company and an Investment Bank, as well as serving as a Teaching Assistant. In 2024, he worked as a Research Assistant on a project led by Dr. Jin Ho Kim, focusing on labor market concentration in the UK semiconductor industry. He is currently a Research Assistant for The Productivity Institute Wales Forum, working under Professor Melanie Jones.
Publication
2025
- Feng, Y., Henley, A. and Kochanova, A. 2025. The role of management practices in productivity: Does family ownership matter?. Working paper. The Productivity Institute. Available at: https://www.productivity.ac.uk/research/the-role-of-management-practices-in-productivity-does-family-ownership-matter/
2023
- Zhu, K., Du, L. and Feng, Y. 2023. Government attention on environmental protection and firms' carbon reduction actions: Evidence from text analysis of manufacturing enterprises. Journal of Cleaner Production 423, article number: 138703. (10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.138703)
Articles
- Zhu, K., Du, L. and Feng, Y. 2023. Government attention on environmental protection and firms' carbon reduction actions: Evidence from text analysis of manufacturing enterprises. Journal of Cleaner Production 423, article number: 138703. (10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.138703)
Monographs
- Feng, Y., Henley, A. and Kochanova, A. 2025. The role of management practices in productivity: Does family ownership matter?. Working paper. The Productivity Institute. Available at: https://www.productivity.ac.uk/research/the-role-of-management-practices-in-productivity-does-family-ownership-matter/
Research
Working in progress
1) “Truthfulness or Hypocrisy? Speculative Culture and Corporate Environmental Engagement” Under review of a journal (with Xiaoyu Wei and Xingyu Yu, Kunyan Zhu)
Summary: This study explores how speculative culture influences corporate environmental engagement in China. Findings suggest that speculative culture promotes engagement primarily as a strategic response to acquire external resources, especially under high competition and regulatory pressure. However, its effect weakens with Confucian culture or financially experienced chairpersons and often leads to symbolic rather than substantive actions.
2) How does cooperation impact on innovation and productivity? A CDM Model Approach (PhD thesis chapter 2)
Summary: This paper uses a CDM model and UK Innovation Survey data to examine how cooperation affects innovation and productivity. Cooperation boosts innovation input and output but impacts productivity only indirectly. SMEs gain more in early innovation stages, while large firms are better at converting innovation into productivity gains.
3) Do workers share in the returns to firm level R&D activity? Evidence from UK manufacturing firms (PhD thesis chapter 3)
Summary: Using matched data from ARDx and BERD (1997–2019), we estimate labour market power via markdown measures. A 10% increase in R&D reduces markdown by 0.7%, indicating weaker monopsony power. The effect is stronger for internally funded R&D and in high-tech, labour-intensive firms, driven by increased employment and labour share rather than higher markups.
4) Dissecting the Productivity Disadvantage of Wales: A Firm-Level Decomposition Approach (Working paper for Wales Productivity Forum)
Summary: This paper uses ARDx data (2011–2020) to assess firm-level TFP in Wales relative to the rest of Great Britain. Wales shows a 4% productivity gap, with 55% explained by firm characteristics and 45% by structural factors. Unlike London, where gaps are structural, Wales’s disadvantage is mainly compositional, highlighting the need to improve firm mix and attract high value-added industries.
Teaching
Tutorials:
21/22 BST753 Quantitative Methods MSc
22/23 BST753 Quantitative Methods MSc
23/24 BS2550 Microeconomics Theory 2 BSc
23/24 BS2551 Money Banking and Finance BSc
24/25 BS2550 Microeconomics Theory 2 BSc
24/25 BS2551 Money Banking and Finance BSc
24/25 BST753 Quantitative Methods MSc