Yu Zhu joined the University of Dundee as Chair Professor of Economics in September 2014. After completing his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Economics at the University of Oslo, he became a Research Economist at Statistics Norway prior to moving to the UK in 1994. He undertook a PhD in Economics at the University of Cambridge which was awarded in 1998. Before coming to Dundee, he was Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Reader in Labour Economics at the University of Kent. Prior to that, Yu Zhu has also been a Research Officer at Keele University and a Research Fellow at Warwick University.
His main research interests include the economics of education, labour economics broadly defined, and applied microeconometrics. He has been a Research Associate of the Centre for the Economics of Education (CEE) at the London School of Economics. He also has consulting experience with Futureskills Scotland, Department for Education (DfE), Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop), Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Royal Society. He was an elected council member of the Scottish Economic Society (SES) and a Visiting Professorial Fellow at UNSW Canberra, Australia. He is currently on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Family and Economic Issues.

Yu Zhu joined IZA as a Research Fellow in July 2018.