Prof. Yan Li's research interests include energy economics, industrial economics, regional economics, and econometrics. One focus of her work is economics research on optimal income tax. Her Ph.D. dissertation titled “A dynamic Investigation of Optimal Income Tax” was mainly based on the analysis and deduction of economics theory. During 2018 she was a visiting scholar at the MIT Joint Program with support from the China Scholarship Council. Her work involved collecting data on energy use and production in China, conducting statistical analysis and policy simulation on the applicability of the theoretical research in China and India.