Yue Yu is an assistant professor in economics at the University of Toronto, with a cross-appointment at UTSC Management and the Rotman School of Management. Her research delves into urbanization in developing countries, focusing on the impact of regional and urban public policies on the urbanization process and the shaping of urban landscapes. Currently, her research concentrates on two critical types of urban public policies for developing countries. The first involves regulations on land use and housing supply, with a recent study evaluating the effects of farmland protection policies on urbanization and economic growth in China. The second area of focus is transportation infrastructure investment. In this domain, a recent paper by Yue demonstrates that an improved road network in Uganda facilitates the integration of towns into the national supply chain, fostering specialization and structural transformation in peripheral areas. Her approach involves combining causal identification strategies with structural estimation methods. She earned her Ph.D. from Columbia University.