[2] On November 30, 2020, President-elect Joe Biden nominated Yellen to serve as secretary of the treasury; she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 25, 2021, and was sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris the following day.

[15] Her dissertation was titled Employment, Output and Capital Accumulation in an Open Economy: A Disequilibrium Approach under the supervision of James Tobin,[16] a noted economist who would later receive the Nobel Memorial Prize.

A research study led to a theory called "reproductive technology shock", arguing that the increased availability of both abortion and contraception in the late 1960s and early 1970s, amidst the sexual revolution, eroded the social norms surrounding sex, pregnancy, and marriage, leading to a sharp decline in the stigma of unwed motherhood.

[32] On April 22, 1994, President Bill Clinton announced his intention to nominate Yellen as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, alongside Alan Blinder, who has been designated as vice chairman.

"[35] President Clinton played an indirect role in the selection process, delegating most of the responsibility to NEC Director Robert Rubin, Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, and CEA Chair Laura Tyson, who was a colleague of Yellen's at Berkeley.

[33] In July 1994, during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee, Yellen said that Fed policies should keep the economy growing as much as possible without accelerating inflation but avoid taking a clear position on the prospect of further increases in interest rates.

[41] She was reluctant to leave the Federal Reserve, but White House officials talked her into a job, passing over others with greater marquee value because, as Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said, "We wanted someone who could bring a rigorous analytic approach to the issues and who could work well with others.

[84] In July 2014, at her first semi-annual congressional testimony on U S. monetary policy, Yellen said, "while real estate, equities, and corporate bond prices have risen appreciably and valuation metrics have increased they were generally in line with historical norms."

[86] That move was largely expected because extraordinarily low rates for an extremely long time may contribute to financial instability and pose a threat to the economy, and was considered a departure from the previous controversial Fed policy, commonly known as the "Greenspan put".

[89] Following the 2016 presidential election, Yellen gave a strong defense of the Dodd–Frank Act in her Joint Economic Committee testimony, standing in opposition to incoming President Donald Trump's plans to review the landmark legislation.

In her remarks about the aftermath of the crisis, she said, "The balance of research suggests that the core reforms we have put in place have substantially boosted resilience without unduly limiting credit availability or economic growth."

[91] In November 2017, as Yellen's tenure as chair of the Federal Reserve was coming to an end, Trump considered nominating her for another term, but on the advice of his Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, he picked a Republican Fed governor, Jerome Powell, instead.

[96][97] That move came in response to a string of "widespread consumer abuses and compliance breakdowns" at the company, particularly a fake account scandal,[98] and marked the first time the Fed has imposed a cap on the entire assets of a financial institution.

[105] On July 31, 2018, the Hutchins Center announced Yellen, James H. Stock, and Louise Sheiner as co-chairs of the newly launched Productivity Measurement Initiative, aimed at improving the quality of economic statistics.

[2] Within the think tank, she has been providing expertise and commentary on a range of economic issues, offering her perspective and analysis at Brookings panels, congressional testimony, lectures across the United States and abroad, and regularly serving as a commentator in the media.

They urged lawmakers to act aggressively with fiscal stimulus in three areas: extending the supplementary unemployment payments; providing additional financial assistance to hard-hit states and local governments; and investing in the medical response to the pandemic.

[138] A few days later, Treasury Secretary Yellen co-wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post with four of her international counterparts, describing the new agreement as "an historic opportunity to end the race to the bottom in corporate taxation, restoring government resources at a time when they are most needed.

She warned Congress that failing to meet those financial obligations would cause "irreparable harm" to the U.S. economy and that the Treasury Department would take "extraordinary measures" to prevent the United States from suffering a government shutdown or even a debt default.

[143] After lawmakers adopted a short-term debt ceiling bill to raise the United States' borrowing limit through early December, she said that a longer-term measure should be provided to ensure certainty in government's solvency.

[145] She also supported the idea for Democrats to raise the debt limit high enough that it would not be reached until after the 2024 general elections while the party holds a majority in both houses of Congress, therefore preventing the issue from being weaponized for political reasons.

[151] In November 2021, Yellen and senior Treasury personnel were tasked with crafting a sanctions strategy that would maximize the costs inflicted on Russia's economy while limiting, if possible, the expected negative impact on the United States and its allies if a potential aggression began.

"[159] On May 10, 2022, during a Senate Banking Committee hearing, Yellen made comments on the economic consequences of Roe v. Wade overturning after a leaked draft majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization showed the Supreme Court was poised to overrule its previous decisions that legalized abortion in the United States.

"[160] Following that heated exchange, Senator Scott penned an op-ed for The Washington Post in which he called Yellen's claim "simply false" and compared her arguments to those of Margaret Sanger in support of eugenics.

[163] In June 2023, the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which was passed to reach a bipartisan agreement on debt ceiling, reallocated more than a quarter of the funding previously approved for IRS modernization to other budgetary areas.

[165] Coinciding with her visit, Yellen wrote an op-ed for The New York Times in which she highlighted the importance of America's support and repeated President Biden's message that Washington will stand with the Ukrainian people for as long as it takes.

[169] On March 21, Yellen delivered a speech to an American Bankers Association (ABA) summit in which she defended the forceful actions taken by regulators to avert a sweeping banking crisis and pledged resolute Biden administration support for lenders in need, regardless of their respective sizes.

She began her visit by holding informal talks with the country's former vice premier Liu He, and People’s Bank of China (PBC) governor Yi Gang about the state of their domestic economies, as well as the global outlook, in a bid to reopen communication lines and find areas of common economic ground between the two nations.

"[178] Overall, Yellen's visit was part of a broader push by the Biden administration to rebuild bridges between the two countries and open more lines of high-level communication with America's main geopolitical rival, in particular with China's new economic leaders.

In a press conference capping her four-day trip to Beijing, Yellen described it as a mission to revive engagement between the two largest economies and said she believes it has brought US-China ties closer to a "surer footing.

[184] In September 2021, at a House Financial Services Committee hearing, Yellen lent support to efforts for the complete removal of the debt ceiling, arguing that the borrowing cap is "very destructive" and poses an unnecessary threat to the American economy.