Economics often shows up in places students least expect, and Professor Yael Midnight invites students to explore those connections in her teaching and mentorship. An Assistant Teaching Professor whose fields of interest include industrial organization, labor economics, and microeconomics, Professor Midnight earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from Duke University and holds an undergraduate degree in economics and mathematics from Washington University in St. Louis. In her teaching, including ECON 216: Economics of Sports, she encourages students to examine how economic forces shape familiar institutions, asking how competition structures affect athletes and fans, how money moves through leagues, and how public policy influences the organization of sports. As she notes, “Sports economics is important because sports are important,” pointing to the ways sports reflect labor markets, consumer behavior, institutions, and public policy on a global scale.
That perspective also shapes Professor Midnight’s approach to undergraduate research, where she works closely with students as they develop their own questions and apply economic tools to topics that matter to them. Students are encouraged to think critically about how sports systems have evolved over time, how different models of sport operate across countries, and how policies and league structures shape outcomes, skills that extend well beyond sports. “The first step in research is curiosity,” Professor Midnight explains, encouraging students to pursue questions they genuinely want answered and to engage deeply with evidence and argument. By connecting economic reasoning to real-world examples, she helps students build confidence as economists and discover the discipline’s relevance in unexpected places.