A Stone Centre success story: Linda Wu

We’re delighted to say that, following a successful Stone Centre PhD scholarship, Linda Wu has accepted a job as Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan. We spoke with Linda to offer our congratulations and to find out more about her next moves.

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Thanks for joining us, Linda! How has the Stone Centre helped you pursue research you are passionate about?

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“I’m incredibly grateful for all the support that I have received throughout my years in my PhD studies from the Stone Centre at UCL. They helped me in researching questions that I really like and that I’m really interested in, like wealth inequality, and in navigating the job market as well.”

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Tell us a bit more about your research agenda. How did the Stone Centre support it?

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My research agenda studies wealth inequality, intergenerational inequality, and wealth transfer taxation. Throughout my PhD study, the Stone Centre supported me with a PhD scholarship.

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‍You recently visited UC Berkeley for an exchange. How was it?

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Last year I did a visiting exchange at UC Berkeley; the Stone Centre’s stipend was really important and made this possible, so I’m really grateful. Over the past three years, I have been incredibly well supported by the Stone Centre.

I was visiting UC Berkeley for a year, mainly doing my own research, but I also had the chance to talk to the people there because public finance is a strong field there and that’s my field as well, so the trip benefited me a lot by helping me meet people and getting the chance to present my work there. This helped a lot later on when I entered the job market. It really sharpened my job market paper and also, I was able to get some valuable references, so that was a really worthwhile journey, which resulted in a job at Michigan.

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You’re also doing some more work with the Stone Centre, what are you expecting?

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Before joining Michigan, I’m actually going to UBC’s Stone Centre as a postdoc fellow for a year, in Vancouver. After that, I’ll join Michigan in 2026. All of the Stone Centre’s interactions around the world are really beneficial. In Vancouver, I’ll continue to further my work and research into public finance and wealth inequality with multiple projects.

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Looking ahead to Michigan, what do you hope to do there?

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Starting in 2026 when I move to Michigan, I’ll start teaching. I’m not one hundred percent sure yet what I’ll be teaching, but I hope to continue to specialise in wealth inequality in the context of public finance, intergenerational mobility, and the tax policies around that, such as estate taxation, gift taxation, and capital taxation in general.

Many thanks to Linda and best wishes for the future. If you’d like to find out more about Linda’s research, take a look at Behavioral Responses to Estate Taxation: Evidence from Taiwan on the Stone Centre website or visit Linda’s website.