Zhiwu Wei is chosen the 2025 winner of the RSAI Dissertation Award for his PhD dissertation "Empirical Essays on Spatial Inequality".

The dissertation engages with one of the most pressing issues in contemporary Regional Science and makes an outstanding contribution, engaging with relevant theoretical work as well as robustly applying a range of quantitative and causal inference methods across multiple empirical contexts and countries. The research results are clearly presented and rigorously discussed in light of the current literature, demonstrating a deep understanding of both theory and empirical evidence. The dissertation provides novel insights into the causes and consequences of spatial inequality in both Global and Global South contexts. The findings provide valuable implications for place-sensitive policy design, particularly in addressing inequality and fostering inclusive regional development. Among the key findings of the dissertation is the identification of the causal impact of exposure to urban density during a person’s “impressionable years” on outcomes later in life, suggesting that more time in urban areas during these years makes respondents more supportive of immigrants and gender equality later in life. The dissertation also presents a new measure of spatial inequality for regions in Global South countries and examines its association with georeferenced social protests. The analysis suggests that regions with higher levels of spatial inequality experience more frequent protests. The research also examines the extent to which the Brexit vote triggered polarization in economic expectations and spending intentions between pro- and anti-Brexit voters and identifies strong polarization effects between these two groups. Another key highlight of the research is the analysis of the impact of the Brexit vote on regional aggregate consumption suggesting divergence in consumption of automobiles and housing transactions between regions with different shares of leave voters.  Overall, the dissertation represents an extremely high-quality, relevant, and impactful contribution to the field of Regional Science and beyond.

Dr Wei was awarded his PhD (viva passed with no corrections) in Land Economy from the University of Cambridge in October 2024. He was supervised by Dr Davide Luca.