THANG DANG
Senior Researcher
INVEST Centre
University of Turku

I am an economist with research interests in social inequalities and policy evaluation. My work lies in applied microeconomics, with a particular focus on labour, health, education, and family economics. A key aim of my research is to inform policy interventions that enhance the well-being of vulnerable groups and promote social mobility. My research has been published in the Journal of Development Economics, Labour Economics, and the Journal of Health Economics among other peer-reviewed journals.
I received my PhD in economics from the University of York in 2021 and a master’s degree in economics from Victoria University of Wellington in 2015. I am also a research affiliate at EfD-Vietnam, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH). Before joining INVEST in August 2024, I worked as a 3-year postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Fertility and Health at NIPH, and before that a lecturer in economics at UEH. I was awarded the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2024.
Selected research-in-progress
Mental Health Consequences of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine in Finland (with Jouni Helske, Henri Salokangas)
School Exposure and Refugee Youth (with Truc Nguyen)
The Impact of Culture on Educational Success and Social Mobility (with Thomas Cornelissen)
The Long-Term Health Consequences of Expanding Access to Higher Education (with Mika Haapanen, Tuomo Suhonen)-R&R Economics of Education Review
Parental Job Loss and Its Implications for the Mental Health of Adults and Children in the Family: Causal Evidence from Workplace Closures in Norway (with Jonathan Wörn, Vegard Skirbekk, Bernt Bratsberg)-R&R European Sociological Review
External Safety Enforcement
Publications
Language Training, Refugees’ Healthcare Integration, and the Next Generation’s Health, Journal of Development Economics 174: 103470, 2025
Long-Lasting Consequences of Being Targeted, World Development 195: 107115, 2025
Universal Credit: Welfare Reform and Mental Health (with Mike Brewer, Emma Tominey), Journal of Health Economics 98: 102940, 2024
The Multigenerational Impacts of Educational Expansion: Evidence from Vietnam (with Thomas Cornelissen), Labour Economics 78: 102243, 2022
Retirement and Health Services Utilization in a Low-Income Country,* Economics of Transition and Institutional Change 30(3): 597-620, 2022
Intergenerational Earnings and Income Mobility in Vietnam,* LABOUR 34(1): 113-136, 2020
Quasi-experimental Evidence on the Political Impacts of Education in Vietnam,* Education Economics 27(2): 207-221, 2019
Do the More Educated Utilize More Health Care Services? Evidence from Vietnam Using a Regression Discontinuity Design,* International Journal of Health Economics and Management 18(3): 277-299, 2018
Human Resource Management Practices and Firm Outcomes: Evidence from Vietnam* (with Thai Tri Dung, Vu Thi Phuong, Tran Dinh Vinh), Journal of Asian Business and Economic Studies 25(2): 221-238, 2018
The Determinants of Self-medication: Evidence from Urban Vietnam* (with Nguyen Trong Hoai), Social Work in Health Care 56(4): 260-282, 2017
*Pre-PhD work
Teaching
Interactions in Statistical Models
Econometric Methods for Policy Evaluation
Non-technical writings and research summary
Multigenerational Health Impacts of Language Training (in Norwegian)
University Expansion Boosted Mental Health and Longevity (in Finnish)
Economic Costs of Sexual Violence in the Workplace (in Vietnamese)
Career Costs of Women’s Childbearing Decisions (in Vietnamese)
Long-Term and Intergenerational Benefits of Compulsory Schooling (in Vietnamese)