Alumni Profile: Jasper Pinquan Jiang, DPSS’25

Research has long been the focus of Jasper Pinquan Jiang, DPSS’25. His research interests—which include public finance, health policy, policy narrative, and policy process—were solidified while he was an undergraduate at Renmin University of China (RUC).

“During my second year, I led a team of five students to a village in the southwest China as a research project. I led symposiums, conducted more than ten in-depth interviews, and collected dozens of questionnaires. But the most valuable component was conversations I had with the village’s primary doctor. A perplexing phenomenon is that even with relatively well-developed digital infrastructure, digital medical services remain ineffective, failing to gain villagers' trust and instead adding burdens for both doctors and patients. Interviews revealed that on one hand, the primary demand for medical services comes from middle-aged and elderly villagers. Their low digital literacy and entrenched reliance on traditional healthcare methods naturally foster distrust toward telemedicine. On the other hand, the actual medical capabilities within villages have not improved. Telemedicine essentially involves consulting renowned doctors from other regions, but these specialists are often too busy to provide consistent support for a complete course of treatment, and the actual results have not been entirely satisfactory. This experience has made me realize the complexity of real-world governance and the necessity of effective policymaking.”

Afterwards, Jiang said, “I actively sought opportunities at RUC to explore the complexities of public policy through diverse research methodologies such as causal inference, experiments, case studies, geospatial data processing, and simulation.”

 After graduating with a dual degree in Smart Communication and Public Administration, Jiang enrolled in the University of Chicago’s Data Policy and Summer Scholar (DPSS) program. However, DPSS wasn’t Jiang’s first experience with the University of Chicago: he participated in the Public Capital Markets Credential (PCMC)—taught in Beijing—in early 2025. 

“I was drawn to PCMC specifically because it was offered by the University of Chicago. I love the university’s rigorous academic training, research focus, and the topics covered—how public organizations use municipal bonds to address challenges in climate change, economic inequality, and social justice—aligned with my research interests."

DPSS, he said, was a logical next step in furthering his quantitative research methods before he began his job as a research assistant at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).

Many of the skills Jiang gained from DPSS, he said, have been immediately applicable to his research work. “For example, DPSS showed me how to use identification strategy correctly. Now I not only know how to better understand the structure of data and obtain deeper insights but also pick the right statistical models for statistics and inference, then employ various visualization strategies for data narrative. This quantitative analysis workflow is critical in the era of big data, because the key to policymaking and governance lies in accessing reliable data and conducting meaningful analyses. I appreciate the experience I had in DPSS to work with R programming, because its powerful functions enable me to utilize advanced visualization techniques and cutting-edge causal inference methods that I am using now.” 

However, Jiang said it wasn’t only analytic skills he gained form DPSS. “One particularly valuable skill was learning how to present policy narratives—organizing and framing the policy goal in an engaging storytelling way so that it is supported by the broadest audience. For policy to succeed, it has to be easily understood by implementers and constituents.”

As for future plans, Jiang said he wants to continue his research path. “I would like to  pursue my PhD in public policy and become an excellent scholar. Every individual in society is affected by public policy. Identifying genuine public pain points and then designing evidence-based public policies to effectively address these issues, ultimately creating public value, is the life-long challenge I am committed to tackling. My aspiration and motivation lie in using my research to influence the policy process both theoretically and practically, thereby helping to achieve good governance.”