Lizhong Liu is an associate policy researcher at RAND and professor of policy analysis at the RAND School of Public Policy. She studies housing policy, housing finance, land use, and urban economics and is an affiliate of the University of Southern California Lusk Center for Real Estate, and a junior population scientist at the California Center for Population Research. Liu's recent research explores the fiscal implications of reducing impact fees, the impacts of public housing redevelopment on local markets and neighborhood well-being, the mortgage lock-in effects of rising interest rates, and the ways land use changes shape demographic and socioeconomic dynamics. Her work draws extensively on causal inference methods, spatial analysis, and spatial econometrics. She also has experience with mixed-methods approaches, including qualitative comparative analysis and survey design and analysis.
Liu earned her Ph.D. in public policy and management from the University of Southern California. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked as a macroeconomic analyst at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange in China. She also holds a master of public policy from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in management from Renmin University of China.