Avatar

Ke (Kerr) Lyu

Ph.D. Candidate in Economics University of Nevada, Reno (UNR)
1664 N. Virginia Street, The John Tulloch Business Building, Reno, NV 89557

Self Introduction

I am a sixth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Economics at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). In Fall 2026, I will join Southern Arkansas University as Assistant Professor of Economics.

My research fields are Labor Economics, Economics of Entrepreneurship, Public Economics, and Health Economics. Broadly, my research examines how public policies and individual factors shape entrepreneurial activity, particularly among “fragile” or early-stage ventures such as solo self-employment, nonemployer firms, and unincorporated businesses. Two key questions drive my research:

❓What drives self-employment? Is it primarily dominated and driven by opportunity or by necessity in both high- and middle-income countries?

❓To what extent can policies designed to promote self-employment effectively enhance social welfare?

News Feed

01/16/2026 — Paper published in Small Business Economics: A Tale of Two Startups: The Loss and Gain of Startups in the U.S. Economy in the Pandemic.
12/05/2025 — Our paper, "Taxes, Incentives and Entrepreneurship:
Evidence from the Universe of U.S. Startups", will be presented at the NBER Place-Based Policies and Entrepreneurship Conference.
10/24/2025 — The same paper has also been presented at the NBER Economic Analysis of Business Taxation Workshop.
05/01/2026-05/03/2026 — Our paper, "How Do Minimum Wages Affect Nonemployer Business Establishments in the United States?", has been accepted for presentation at the Society of Labor Economists' 29th Annual Meeting .
06/04/2025–06/07/2025 — Presented the same paper at the 45th Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference (BCERC) .