Yang Yao is a professor and dean of the Di-shui-hu Advanced Finance Institute (DAFI), Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. He is also a visiting professor at Peking University. He is the founding editor of China Economic Quarterly, a house journal of the China Center for Economic Research, Peking University and served as the dean of the National School of Development, Peking University from November 2012 to January 2024. He chairs the China Economic Annual Conference, the Foundation of Modern Economics, and the supervision committee of CF40. He is a member of China Economist 50 Forum. His research interests include new political economy, economic transition and development in China and political philosophy. He has published more than hundred research papers in international and domestic journals including China Social Sciences, American Economic Review, American Political Science Review, and Management Science. He publishes or edits more than a dozen books on political economy and philosophy, and economic development in China. He is also a prolific writer for magazines and newspapers.
Dr. Yao was awarded the 2008 and 2014 Sun Yefang Award in Economic Science, the 2008 and 2010 Pu Shan Award in International Economics and the 2008 Zhang Peigang Award in Development Economics, and was named the Best Teacher by the PKU Student Union in 2006 and the Best Advisor by the PKU Graduate Students Union in 2017. He is a fellow of the International Economic Association (2024).
Dr Yao obtained a BS in geography in 1986 and an MS in economics in 1989, both from Peking University, and his PhD in development economics from the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1996.