Yanyan Liu is a Senior Research Fellow in the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Unit. Her research focuses on program impact evaluation, climate change, poverty mapping and forecasting, microfinance, and microinsurance. Her work has been published in journals such as American Economic Review, Economic Journal, European Economic Review, Journal of Applied Econometrics, Nature Sustainability, Nature Human Behaviour, and American Journal of Agricultural Economics.

Prior to joining IFPRI in 2009, Yanyan worked for RTI International and the Development Research Group at the World Bank. Yanyan received a joint PhD in Economics and Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University.