College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics

Major Professor: Dr. Mason-Wardell

Area of Specialization: Development Economics

Expected Graduation Date: Spring 2026 

Personal Website: https://sites.google.com/msu.edu/yeyounglee/  

Publications on Google Scholar

Yeyoung Lee is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics (AFRE) at Michigan State University. Her research centers on international development, with a particular focus on agricultural technology adoption, women’s empowerment, and household resilience. Prior to joining AFRE, she interned at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), where she led a study on the gender-differentiated impacts of climatic shocks on agricultural labor in Tanzania. This research was published in Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. (See the article here.) 

During her time in the AFRE program, she worked as a short-term consultant for the Innovation Laboratory for Small-Scale Irrigation (ILSSI), collaborating with Drs. Elizabeth Bryan and Claudia Ringler at IFPRI. She led a study on the impacts of small-scale irrigation on women’s time allocation in Ethiopia, which was recently published in World Development. (See the article here.) In addition, she supported Drs. Nicole M. Mason and Veronique Theriault at MSU, Drs. Ruth Meinzen-Dick and Elizabeth Bryan at IFPRI, and researchers at agricultural policy research institutes across Africa in co-organizing the PRCI-Africa technical training under the Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research, Capacity, and Influence (PRCI).