Research
LeslieSheng.Shen@bos.frb.org
Personal Website
Biography
Leslie Sheng Shen is a principal economist in the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Research Department. Her research focuses on international finance, banking, and macroeconomics, covering financial and banking globalization, geopolitical risk, capital flows, financial networks, and household consumption. She is also a visiting scholar at the MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy and an instructor at Harvard University. Before joining the Boston Fed, Shen worked at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. She received her PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Work Experience
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
Principal Economist, 2025-
Senior Economist, 2024-2025
Senior Financial Economist, 2023-2024
Financial Economist, 2022-2023
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Visiting Scholar, 2020-
Harvard University
Visiting Faculty, 2023-
Federal Reserve Board of Governors
Economist, 2019-2022
Education
PhD, Economics, University of California, Berkeley, 2019
BA, Economics (honors) and Political Science, Wellesley College, 2010
Primary fields of research
International finance, Financial Economics, Macroeconomics, Political Economy
Publications
Refereed journal articles
“Local Effects of Global Capital Flows: A China Shock in the U.S. Housing Market” with Zhimin Li and Calvin Zhang. 2024. The Review of Financial Studies 37(3): 761–801. https://doi.org/10.1093/rfs/hhad067
“Scarred Consumption” with Ulrike Malmendier. 2024. American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 16(1): 322–355.
Book chapters
“Dollar Funding Stress in China” with Darrell Duffie and Laura Kodres. 2023. In Fault Lines After COVID-19: Global Economic Challenges and Opportunities 1st edition, edited by Robert Z. Aliber, Már Gudmundsson, and Gylfi Zoega, 109–131. Palgrave Macmillan.
Boston Fed publications
“How Firms’ Perceptions of Geopolitical Risk Affect Investment.” 2025. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Current Policy Perspectives 25-3.
“The Impact of Global Shipping Cost Surges on US Import Price Inflation,” with Hillary Stein. 2024. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Current Policy Perspectives 24-6.
“Self-reinforcing Glass Ceilings,” with Carlos F. Avenancio-León and Alessio Piccolo. 2024. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Research Department Working Papers No. 24-14. https://doi.org/10.29412/res.wp.2024.14