Yaroslava Babych studied at the University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Kyiv, Ukraine, and then at Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania, USA. In 2000 she received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Franklin and Marshall College with a double major in Economics and in Philosophy. Yaroslava received her Ph.D. in Economics from the George Washington University in Washington, DC in 2011.

Her research interests include topics on the determinants of long-run growth in developing countries, the effect of country's political institutions on growth takeoffs, and the effects of financial crises on long-term growth patterns.