Crystal S. Yang is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Professor Yang’s teaching and research interests center around empirical law and economics, particularly in the areas of criminal justice and consumer bankruptcy. Her current research includes empirical projects on the effects of the bail system on defendants' short and long-term outcomes, racial bias in the criminal justice system, and the spillover effects of deportation fear. In addition to publications in leading economics journals and law reviews, her work has been featured in the New Yorker, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Boston Globe, among other media outlets, and has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court.
From 2014-2015, Professor Yang served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts. Professor Yang graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2013, where she was a John M. Olin and Terence M. Considine Fellow, and recipient of the John M. Olin Prize. She also received her Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 2013 and was a recipient of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. She earned an A.B. in economics summa cum laude and an A.M. in statistics from Harvard University in 2008.