David Yang

David Yang is a Professor of Economics at Harvard University, affiliated with the Department of Economics. He serves as Director of the Center for History and Economics at Harvard. His research focuses on political economy, particularly the forces of stability and change in authoritarian regimes, with a focus on historical and contemporary China. He is a Faculty Research Fellow at NBER, a Global Scholar at CIFAR, and a fellow at BREAD. David received a B.A. in Statistics and B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley, and a PhD in Economics from Stanford.

David Y. Yang is an economist whose research focuses on the intersection of political economy, public policy, and social behavior. His work explores how political ideologies, media, and institutional structures influence public health responses, protest dynamics, and policy diffusion. Yang's research interests include the impact of censorship, the role of social interactions in political engagement, and the political economy of innovation in authoritarian contexts. His publications examine topics such as partisan differences in social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic, the strategic nature of protests, and the transmission of historical traumas across generations. His work often highlights the interplay between technology, governance, and societal behavior.