Meet Our Researchers: In Conversation with Yanyan Liu
Meet Our Researchers: In Conversation with Yanyan Liu
We sat down with Dr. Yanyan Liu to hear about her journey to becoming a development economist, her research insights, and her advice for the next generation of scholars.
We are delighted to welcome Dr. Yanyan Liu, who joined REAP and SCCEI in July 2025 as a Senior Research Scholar. Dr. Liu’s work spans program impact evaluation, poverty prediction, microfinance, microinsurance, and economic transformation. In addition to her new role with our team, she continues to serve as a Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Before joining IFPRI in 2009, she worked at RTI International and in the Development Research Group at the World Bank.
To introduce Dr. Liu to our community, we sat down with her to hear about her journey to becoming a development economist, her research insights, and her advice for the next generation of scholars.
A Journey into Development Economics
Q: Tell me a bit about your journey to academia and what inspired you to pursue getting a Ph.D. and becoming a researcher?
A: In 2002, while visiting a farm in Michigan as a master’s student, I was struck by the farmer’s use of GPS technology to apply site-specific fertilizers and other inputs. This experience revealed the wide technological gap between developed and developing countries and sparked my enduring interest in leveraging technology to advance agriculture in the developing world. Over time, this interest has broadened to include other areas of development economics, such as education and nutrition.
Making the Complex Clear
Q: If you met someone who knew absolutely nothing about you or your research, how would you describe the work that you do and why you do it?
A: I study how individuals and households make decisions, with the goal of uncovering the impacts of policy interventions and offering policy recommendations to improve individual and household well-being in developing countries.
Turning Data into Insight
Q: Can you share a bit about one of your recent studies?.
A: In the paper “Information, Mobile Communication and Referral Effects”, my coauthors and I analyze the universe of cellphone records from a telecommunications provider in a northern Chinese city to study the role of information exchange in urban labor markets. We provide the first direct evidence that communication between referral pairs intensifies around job changes. Information transmitted through social contacts helps mitigate information asymmetries and enhances labor market performance. More broadly, this research illustrates how newly available big data can be leveraged to address complex economic questions.
Advice for Aspiring Researchers
Q: Lastly, do you have any advice to give to a younger person just beginning to explore pursuing research as a career?
A: Follow your curiosity, stay patient and persistent, and find joy in the research journey.
Dr. Liu’s career reflects both a deep curiosity about the forces shaping development and a commitment to using rigorous research to inform policy and improve lives. We are excited to have her expertise and perspective at REAP and SCCEI, and we look forward to the impact her work will continue to make in the years ahead.
