Yu is currently working on his doctoral dissertation on elections and corruption, drawing on fieldwork conducted in Tanzania, an East African country. As in many other developing countries, reports indicate that during election periods—and even in everyday life—candidates and their brokers distribute a range of goods to voters, from cash to T-shirts, through various means. From an external perspective, these practices are often framed as bribery, vote-buying, or clientelism. However, his conversations with local people revealed that not all of these exchanges were perceived as bribery, vote-buying, or "dirty money"; some were regarded as entirely legitimate. Notably, the reasoning behind these distinctions was rarely grounded in legal frameworks. Yu's research explores the criteria by which these transactions are evaluated and, more broadly, what it implies. While his current focus is on Tanzania and Africa, he hopes to expand his work to include comparative studies with other regions, including Asia.