Education: PhD in Economics from North Carolina State University

Yifei Zhang is a Senior Research Economist at the Agricultural Risk Policy Center at North Dakota State University. She earned a Ph.D. in Economics from North Carolina State University in 2024. Her research focuses on U.S. agricultural risk management and farm safety-net policy, with an emphasis on crop and livestock insurance programs and ad hoc disaster assistance. Her work analyzes how insurance contract design and subsidy structures affect observed participation behavior and the allocation of payments across commodities and regions, particularly when standing insurance programs interact with discretionary assistance. She combines USDA administrative data with market price information, using applied econometric and simulation-based methods to study these patterns under observed program rules and market conditions. Her research provides empirical evidence on incentive effects, coverage gaps, and program trade-offs in federally supported risk management programs, supporting evidence-based decision-making by policymakers, program administrators, and agricultural stakeholders. Her work contributes to ongoing discussions surrounding program design and policy implementation.