Yi Xin's research lies at the intersection of empirical industrial organization and structural econometric modeling. She studies economic mechanisms and consumer behavior in markets with asymmetric information and various emerging online marketplaces using novel micro-level data. In much of her work, she develops econometric techniques that help facilitate identification and estimation of structural parameters that can rationalize individual decisions.

Xin received two bachelor's degrees from Peking University in 2012, in economics and psychology, and in 2018 earned her PhD from Johns Hopkins University in economics. In fall 2019, she spent a season as a visiting scientist at the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at UC Berkeley.