[1] He is a professor, director of China Center for Economic Research and Dean of National School of Development at Peking University.

Yao was appointed, by the Peking University, as the director of China Center for Economic Research in 2010 and as dean of the National School of Development in 2012.

[10] Yao often writes in various magazines and newspapers including The Economist, China Daily,[11] Project Syndicate and Financial Times.

Yao and the working group issued a joint statement and proposed a new way forward to resolve the trade conflicts between USA and China.

He presented an impossibility result for the efficiency hypothesis of institutional change in a general economic setting and a well behaved political process.

According to Yao, the political experience gained by national executives influenced their human capital and personal power and led to competent economic governance.

His cross-country research indicated a positive associated between economic growth and the pre-tenure political experience gained by national executives.

He emphasized upon the role of educational background in forming ideas and beliefs of political leaders, which then impacted their decisions about economic policies.

He conducted a cross-country research and found a positive association between a leader's educational background and a better implementation of liberal reforms.

He studied women political participation by measuring the female membership in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

It was found that the positive effects from female political participation can be obtained by influencing the gender perception of general population.