Yi  Chen

Yi Chen

Visiting Scholar

Yi Chen is a visiting scholar of the Social Policy Institute (SPI) at Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, working with the housing initiatives of SPI, focusing on housing market research addressing housing equity among marginalized populations.

Her research centers on rental housing markets, affordable housing, homeownership and domestic finance. She is dedicated to producing solid evidence-based research which can help improve policy decision-making practices to promote positive outcomes. 

Yi is an Economics PhD candidate at Renmin University of China and also holds dual master’s degrees in Social Policy from Washington University in St. Louis and Public Administration from Renmin University of China. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Advertising from Qufu Normal University. Before working with SPI, she was a graduate policy scholar at the Brown School and an intern for Urban Strategies and the Treasurer’s Office of the City of St. Louis.