Yiyang Chen

Yiyang Chen

PhD student

Yale University

About

I am a Ph.D. student in Economics at Yale University. I’m broadly interested in macroeconomics and economic growth.

Previously, I worked as a predoctoral research fellow at Harvard University with Prof. Melissa Dell on deep learning methods and its application in economic history and political economy. I hold a B.A. in Economics and Computer Science from University of California, Berkeley.

CV

Interests
  • Macroeconomics
  • Economic Growth
  • Deep Learning
Education

  • BA in Economics, 2023

    University of California, Berkeley

  • BA in Computer Science, 2023

    University of California, Berkeley

Experience

 
 
 
 
 
Harvard University
Predoctoral Research Fellow
Harvard University
Jul 2023 – Jun 2025 Massachusetts
· Assist Professor Melissa Dell with research related to economic history and political economy, developing deep learning methods to extract and analyze novel datasets
· Develop deep learning pipelines to classify and analyze unstructured text and image datasets
· Apply models to extract accusations and fact-checking practices from historical news articles, identifying geographic and temporal patterns in media circulation and sensationalism during the McCarthy era
· Cluster and analyze historical newspaper images to study public reactions to key events (e.g., the Vietnam War) by comparing visual narratives across wire services
· Build and manage technical infrastructure, including scrapers for newspaper archives and Azure pipelines for full-edition newspaper digitization, and fine-tuned NLP models to improve various topic classification
 
 
 
 
 
University of California, Berkeley
Research Assistant
University of California, Berkeley
Sep 2020 – Jun 2023 California

· (Fall 2022 – Spring 2023) Assisting Prof. Ulrike Malmendier on “Politician Voting”: Assemble datasets from CRSP, stockwatcher, and other sources; perform analysis on how politicians’ life experience affect their voting decisions and investment decisions

· (Fall 2022) Assisting Prof. Robert Edelstein on “Globalization and Climate Change”: Assemble warm-house gases and sustainable technology datasets; examine causal relationship with natural experiments

· (Fall 2021 – Spring 2022) Assisting Oliver Kim (PhD) and Joel Ferguson (PhD) on “Satellite Imagery and Historical East Asian Economic Growth”: Apply machine learning methods and train satellite data to predict Chinese economic growth status during 1950-1960s; gather gazetteer data and fetch geographical information used in training

· (Fall 2020 – Spring 2021) Assisting Jimmy Narang (PhD) on “Misinformation and Belief Updating”: Help with logistic and design of experiment model used in the research; gather empirical observations and perform preliminary analyses

 
 
 
 
 
University of California, Berkeley
Teaching Assistant
University of California, Berkeley
Sep 2021 – Jun 2023 California
· Work as teaching assistant for Econ 148: Data Science for Economists
and Data 88E: Economic Models
· Develop and update course content (including textbook, lecture and lab notebooks)
· Give lectures; hold discussion sections and office hours; manage class logistics (websites, discussion forums, etc.)
 
 
 
 
 
UC Berkeley Student Learning Center Economics Program
Peer Tutor and Course Liaison
UC Berkeley Student Learning Center Economics Program
Jan 2021 – Dec 2021 California
· Provide drop-in tutoring service to students in Econ 136: Financial Economics class
· Coordinate peer tutors in the cluster and connect with the professor and offer students’ feedback
· Hold exam review sessions and special workshops (academic and career)

Contact