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Welcome to my website.

< introduction >

My name is Christine Wen. I'm an assistant professor of urban planning at Toronto Metropolitan University, specializing in economic development, municipal finance, and education/labor.

My mission is to advance knowledge on structural reforms that strengthen communication + collaboration and reduce power/resource disparities among diverse communities.

Connect with me on LinkedIn, BlueSky, or use the contact form at the very bottom. Also check out my companion blog The Inquisitive Ranger where I log my reflections.

latest updates: 2025.08

> I will be teaching Municipal Finance for Planners and a planning studio in collaboration with CreateTO in Fall 2025 - both required for undergraduate planning students.

> I will be presenting a pseudo-experimental analysis of the impact of tax incentives on public schools as part of a pre-organized panel at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) conference in Minneapolis, MN in October, 2025.

< featured works >

under construction... please check back later

in-depth investigation with The Conversation (2024) < click to read >

see more down in the media section.

The Conversation

research

< topic areas >

municipal finance and tax policy: this research promotes fair taxation and transparency. One project resulted in an original database of disaggregated index measuring the severity of U.S. state restrictions with regard to local revenue and spending. Others have examined the impact of business tax incentives on public services like education.

modeling economic development incentives: This research develops frameworks and tools to guide state + local government interventions in maximizing the net benefits of economic development incentives. The models would predict how much can be cut down with minimum negative effects, thereby making them more cost-efficient.

children in our economy: This research informs development planning around children and childcare, early childhood development, schooling and educational equity, and youth workforce training/socialization/well-being, focusing on the increasingly pervasive role of urban technology and evolving human-machine relationships in labor production.

++ various collaborative projects led by colleagues

inactive/archived:

> human-centered urbanization and rural migrant integration in Chinese cities @Cornell U.

> groundwater management and impact of climate w/ Earth Institute @Columbia U.

< publications >

C. Wen, E. Marcello, & M. Warner (2025) "The fiscal impact of tax abatements on New York's school districts" Journal of Urban Affairs. < click to read >

C. Wen (2024) "Do economic development tax abatements affect school finances?" Economic Development Quarterly, 38 (1), 3-14. < click to read >

C. Wen & G. LeRoy (2023) "Making the students pay? The gross fiscal cost of tax incentives for U.S. school districts." Community Development, 54 (4), 479-495. < click to read >

C. Wen (2020) "Educating rural migrant children in interior China: The promise and pitfall of low-fee private schools." International Journal of Educational Development 79. < click to read >

C. Wen, Y. Xu, Y. Kim, & M. Warner (2020) "Starving counties, squeezing cities: Tax and expenditure limits in the U.S." Journal of Economic Policy Reform 23 (2), 101-119. < click to read >

C. Wen & J. Wallace (2019) "Toward human-centered urbanization? Housing ownership and access to social insurance among migrant households in China." Sustainability 11(13), 3567-3581. < click to read >