Dr. Yan Wang is a Senior Academic Researcher at Boston University Global Development Policy Center, and a member of the prominent expert group appointed by the United National Secretary General (2024-2027). She previously worked as Senior Economist and Team Leader in the World Bank for over 20 years and served as Coordinator of the OECD-DAC and China Study Group for two years (2009-2011). She is the author or coauthor of four books and dozens of papers and country reports and has twice received the prestigious SUN Yefang Award in Economics.
Having retired from the World Bank, her recent research has extended beyond her interests developed during her career at the Bank, covering development financing including but not limited to China-Africa cooperation, the spatial impact of Chinese investment in Africa, debt restructuring, green transformation and the quality of growth in the Global South countries.
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Academic Publications
Empowering Africa: The Impact of China’s Power Finance on Energy Poverty, with Yinyin Xu, GCI Working Paper043, Boston University Global Development Poverty Center, 06/2025.
Greening the Belt and Road with Four Underlying Mechanisms, With Xiaolin Wang and Ran Jin; Boston University GDP Center, GCI Working Paper 046, 11/2025 (forthcoming in Economic Change and Restructuring 2026)
Illuminating Insights: The Impact of Chinese Infrastructure Projects on Economic Activities in Sub‐Saharan Africa (2025-09-29), with Yinyin Xu, Journal of Regional Science. (09-29-2025) https://doi.org/10.1111/jors.70023
Green Natural Capital, the Environmental Kuznets Curve and Development Financing in the Global South, with Yinyin Xu, iScience Vol 27, issue 5, 109562, May 17, 2024.
Direct Impacts and Spatial Spillovers of Chinese Infrastructure Projects on Economic Activities in Sub-Saharan Africa. With Yinyin Xu, GCI Working Paper 036. Boston University Global Development Policy Center.
“China and Africa: A New Narrative on Debt Sustainability and Infrastructure Financing” with Yinyin Xu. Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development, 7(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.24294/jipd.v7i1.2181
“Seventy Years of Economic Development: A Review from the Angle of New Structural Economics”, (July 2020) joint paper with Justin Yifu Lin, China and World Economy, Vol 28 No.4 p. 26-50. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/1749124x/0/ja.
“Green Transformation in China: Structures of Endowment, Investment and employment”, with Hefeng Tong and Jiajun Xu (May 2020). Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 54 (2020) 173-185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.strueco.2020.04.005
“The New Structural Economics: Patient Capital as a Comparative Advantage” with Justin Lin (Feb 20, 2017). Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development (2017) Volume 1 Issue 1, pp.4-23. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2989833
Green Natural Capital, the Environmental Kuznets Curve and Development Financing in the Global South, with Yinyin Xu, iScience Vol 27, issue 5, 109562, May 17, 2024.
Direct Impacts and Spatial Spillovers of Chinese Infrastructure Projects on Economic Activities in Sub-Saharan Africa. With Yinyin Xu, GCI Working Paper 036. Boston University Global Development Policy Center.
China and Africa: A New Narrative on Debt Sustainability and Infrastructure Financing, with Yinyin Xu. Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development, 7(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.24294/jipd.v7i1.2181
Seventy Years of Economic Development: A Review from the Angle of New Structural Economics, (July 2020) joint paper with Justin Yifu Lin, China and World Economy, Vol 28 No.4 p. 26-50. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cwe.12340
Green Transformation in China: Structures of Endowment, Investment and employment, with Hefeng Tong and Jiajun Xu (May 2020). Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 54 (2020) 173-185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.strueco.2020.04.005
The New Structural Economics: Patient Capital as a Comparative Advantage, with Justin Lin (Feb 20, 2017). Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development (2017) Volume 1 Issue 1, pp.4-23. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2989833
Going Beyond Aid: Development Cooperation for Structural Transformation, with Justin Yifu Lin, Cambridge University Press, January 2017 www.cambridge.org/9781316607152, and the Chinese Version 《超越发展援助》by Peking University Publisher, September 2016.