Yan Chen (professor)


Yan Chen is a Chinese American behavioral and experimental economist. She is Daniel Kahneman Collegiate Professor of Information at the University of Michigan School of Information, research professor in the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University, where she directs the Economics Science and Policy Experimental Lab. She is a former president of the Economic Science Association, an international organization of experimental economists.

Biography

Chen studied English for Science and Technology as an undergraduate student in China, and became interested in Economics because of the impact of the Chinese economic reform happening around her. Since English majors were not eligible for graduate school in economics in China, she came to the U.S. for graduate school at Caltech. Her first position at the University of Michigan was in the economics department, but she did not receive tenure in that department. Since her husband was a tenured professor of physics at the same university, she wanted to find a position nearby, and she was recruited to a new position on the faculty of the University of Michigan School of Information.

Research interests

Experimental Economics, Mechanism Design, Information Economics

Selected Works