Dean Yang

Core faculty

Dean Yang

Professor of Economics and Public Policy

Yang's research is on the economic problems of developing countries. His specific areas of interest include: international migration, microfinance, health, corruption, political economy, and the economics of disasters. He teaches a Ford School course on the economics of developing countries, as well as a PhD course in development economics.

State & Hill

Faculty news, spring 2026

May 7, 2026

Ford School experts are publishing research, sharing their knowledge, and getting recognized.

A series of six headshots of people smiling

Publication

Sharing a family photo helps migrant workers elicit employer empathy

Apr 29, 2026

Researchers studying Filipino domestic workers, in collaboration with the Philippine government through the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, found that small gestures—providing a small gift of dried mangos and showing a family photo to new em...

Publication

International migration drives long-run economic development back home

Apr 1, 2026

In “Abundance from Abroad: Migrant Income and Long-Run Economic Development,” published in the American Economic Review, University of Michigan economist Dean Yang and co-authors Gaurav Khanna (UC San Diego), Emir Murathanoglu (Oberlin College), and ...

Alumni spotlight

Designing investment policies to strengthen economic resilience

Dec 8, 2025

Zenia Rogatschnig (MPP ’09) turns ideas into practice at the World Bank, helping developing countries build stronger economies.

State & Hill

Faculty news, fall 2025

Dec 8, 2025

Ford School experts are publishing research, sharing their knowledge, and getting recognized.

Headshots of Javed Ali, Bill Axinn, Samuel Bagenstos, Jenna Bednar, Elizabeth Gerber, Devin Judge-Lord, Alexander Ralph, Fabiana Silva, Alton Worthington, and Dean Yang.

News

Yang: Federal immigration crackdown will devastate developing countries’ economies

Oct 31, 2025

Ford School economist Dean Yang joined NPR’s Planet Money to unpack the surprising surge, and looming drop, in U.S. remittances to low-income countries. His insights reveal how U.S. immigration policy changes could devastate economic development in d...

News

Brain drain or brain gain? New evidence points to benefits of skilled migration

Jun 4, 2025

A new review from Dean Yang published in Science reveals evidence that high-skilled migration opportunities can also lead to “brain gain,” increasing, rather than decreasing, a country’s overall stock of educated workers.

Young Team of South Asian Specialists Working on Desktop Computers at a Modern Workplace. Indian Software Developer Discussing a Financial Software Project with a Female Team Lead

Publication

Yang finds unintended consequences of an early education program in the Philippines

Apr 3, 2025

A major policy change in early education in the Philippines led to an unexpected drop in test scores and academic achievement—revealing the challenges that even well-intentioned reforms can have and the importance of wisely investing in the first yea...

Publication

From Epic to Elections: How a TV Series Transformed India’s Cultural and Political Landscape

Feb 10, 2025

Economists use variations in TV signal strength to demonstrate long-term impacts of the smash 80s series, ‘The Ramayan.’

Publication

Yang conceives new framework for examining migration policies

May 23, 2023

How can individual researchers, NGOs and governments accurately assess how to improve migration policies, given the fraught international and sometimes nationalist political environment? While migration from a poorer to a richer country can have the ...

State & Hill

Faculty News, spring 2023

May 3, 2023

Dominique Adams-Santos, Celeste Watkins-Hayes, and PhD candidate Kayonne Christy contributed a chapter, "Narratives in Context: Locating Racism and Sexism in Black Women's Health Experiences," to The Routledge Companion to Intersectionalities. Th...

Headshots of Kathryn M. Dominguez, Rusty Hills, Morela Hernandez, Brian Jacob, Barry Rabe, Megan Stewart, David Thacher, Christina Weiland

Publication

Yang’s remittances study has implications for survey design and empirical analyses

Feb 1, 2023

Researchers working with measuring remittance data often run into one big problem — misreporting. To provide better guidance for their own and their colleagues’ work, Dean Yang, professor of public policy and economics, and co-authors Giuseppe De Ar...

Publication

Yang provides insight into the mistreatment of migrant workers

Jan 20, 2023

International migrant workers are at major risk of suffering abuses from their employers. Migrants who work for private households as domestic workers (DWs) are considered especially vulnerable given that they live in their employers’ homes where the...

News

Seeking inspiring scholar and changemaker—please apply

Dec 15, 2022

The University of Michigan has officially launched its invitation to apply to be the next Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. The job description calls for “an experienced and inventive scholar/...

Photo of the upper half of the northwest corner of Weill Hall

News

Yang and Montero break down research with American Economic Association

Nov 15, 2022

Recently, Dean Yang and Eduardo Montero sat down with the American Economic Association to discuss their research on the relationship between religious festivals and economic development in Mexico. "I think one reason why we felt this is an impo...

Photo, from above, of a patron saint festival in Mexico. A dense parade of people and brightly colored parade floats make their way down a local street.

State & Hill

Faculty findings, spring 2022

May 31, 2022

Economic and social impact of religious festivals In Mexico, “patron saint day” festivals are often local public holidays and involve substantial financial expenditures by households and governments. Festival dates vary greatly across localities: ...

News

Dean Yang receives Rackham Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award

Mar 30, 2022

Ford School Professor Dean Yang has been honored with the Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award by the Rackham Graduate School. The award recognizes tenured faculty who are “outstanding mentors of (graduate) students, who support their intellectua...

News

Ford School faculty named among “Top 2% Scientists”

Jan 26, 2022

Stanford University named 16 Ford School faculty on their “Top 2% Scientists” list, representing the most-cited scientists with career and single-year impact in various disciplines. The faculty researchers join over 180,000 scientists worldwide. ...

State & Hill

Of mutual benefit: Academic-community partnerships for better public policy

Dec 13, 2021

By Rebecca Cohen (MPP '09) An essential ingredient to developing good policy is understanding what people want and need, and how they experience their lives," says Elisabeth Gerber, Jack L. Walker, Jr. Collegiate Professor of Public Policy and di...

Photo of Poverty Solutions team members and Detroit community members for a land contracts session at a local park

State & Hill

Faculty News, fall 2021

Dec 13, 2021

The U-M Institute for Clinical & Health Research recognized John Ayanian with a 2020 Distinguished Clinical and Translational Research Mentor Award. Joshua Basseches received a grant from the Climate Social Science Network to continue working on the ...

Headshots of Ren Farley, Liz Gerber, Edie Goldenberg, Jon Hanson, Catie Hausman, John Leahy, Yusuf Neggers, Mara Ostfeld, Christina Weiland, and Dean Yang

In the Media

Raising aspirations for poor entrepreneurs may backfire - Yang

Sep 21, 2021 VoxDev

Can setting larger, more ambitious goals and financial self-help books aid poor entrepreneurs in decision-making? In a new study, Dean Yang, professor of economics and public policy, and Aakash Mohpal, a U-M PhD alum, found that the two variables inc...

In the Media

Yang on remittance disruptions in Afghanistan

Sep 2, 2021 Wall Street Journal

As the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan it became more and more disconnected from global financial systems, cutting off ways Afghans living abroad send money home. Dean Yang, who studies the role of remittances in developing countries comments...

Publication

Teaching and incentives prove complementary to promote learning about COVID-19

Jul 8, 2021

Does providing financial incentives to learners enhance teaching about COVID-19, or hinder it? That is the question that Dean Yang, professor of public policy and economics, and his research team asked in their study, “Teaching and Incentives: Substi...

Photo of women in Mozambique, masked and socially distanced, waiting in a queue

Publication

Yang and Montero’s research looks at the development effects of religious festivals

Jun 25, 2021

How does observance of religious festivals influence economic growth? Ford School faculty Dean Yang and Eduardo Montero looked at Catholic patron saint day festivals in Mexico to measure the development impact on municipalities that celebrate the fes...

State & Hill

Faculty News spring 2021

Jun 10, 2021

Javed Ali has appeared recently in outlets such as 60 Minutes, ABC News, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, NPR’s Morning Edition, and the Los Angeles Times. He’ll become an associate professor of practice at the Ford School this fall. I...

Headshots of Javed Ali, Robert Axelrod, Paul Courant, Susan Dynarski, Adrienne Harris, Earl Lewis, Shobita Parthasarathy, Molly Spencer, David Thacher, Megan Tompkins-Stange

Publication

Yang research shows “social norm correction” promotes social distancing

May 19, 2021

African countries are experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases, and the African Center for Disease Control (CDC) is calling on nations to adhere to the basic guidelines of disease containment -- wearing masks and social distancing. The director of the ...

Illustrated map of southeastern Africa, highlighting Mozambique in bright maize.

Publication

Yang research: Temporary farming subsidies in Mozambique boost economic well-being

Apr 28, 2021

The "Green Revolution" in seed and fertilizer technology that bolstered food production and economic well-being in Asian and Latin American countries which began 50 years ago bypassed sub-Saharan African nations. In 2006, a number of those countries...

Publication

Surprising results in Yang study on HIV stigma in Mozambique

Mar 31, 2021

What happens when a public health program intervention actually works against the very problem it’s trying to solve? It turns out, that’s exactly the result a Ford School research team is confronting now. Ford School PhD student James Allen IV an...

News

Dean Yang wins ASC seed grant to study antiretroviral therapy adherence in Beira, Mozambique

Jan 26, 2021

Ford School professor Dean Yang will conduct research on antiretroviral adherence in Mozambique. Yang and his collaborators will study interventions aimed at increasing therapy use among HIV-positive individuals. It is a continuation of research he h...