Yacine Belarbi has been a senior researcher (research director) at the Centre for Research in Applied Economics in Development (CREAD) since 2009. His research focuses on economic geography, macroeconomic policies, and economic development.

He was a visiting professor at Paris 13 University and Paris Ouest University, and served as head of the macroeconomic division of CREAD for many years. He published many papers, and his most recent work focuses on electricity load dynamics in Algeria.  Yacine recently published on energy, econometrics of the buffer panel threshold models, the effects of institutional interactions, and impact of oil dependence on growth. He was also the general director of the Centre for Research in Applied Economics in Development (CREAD).