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Crystal Haijing Huang (United States)

Economist II

Technical lead on IDinsight evaluation projects; passionate about increasing social impact through delivering reliable and relevant evidence to policy

Crystal Haijing Huang is an Economist at IDinsight, based in San Francisco.

At IDinsight, she is the technical lead in designing and executing impact evaluations and applying mixed methods analytic approaches to inform policy decisions. Her areas of expertise include behavioral economics, health, youth employment, and gender equality, with projects in India and across South-East Asia. Currently, she is leading “Goals for Adherence with Low-cost Incentives” (GOALS), a five-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health, in partnership with RAND and Mildmay Uganda. The evaluation develops and tests novel approaches to designing incentives to improve medication adherence among HIV-positive youth in Uganda, leveraging insights from behavioral economics.

In her prior 6+ years of experience at RAND, the World Bank, and Inter-American Development Bank, Dr. Huang has conducted quantitative and qualitative policy research focusing on health, education and social protection, for clients including the Mongolian Ministry of Labor, US Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, and US Department of Labor.

Crystal holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago, an M.A. in International Development and Economics from Yale University and a Ph.D. in Policy Analysis from the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School.