Young worked in various government agencies, including the War Trade Board and the Department of Commerce. In 1922, Young began working as an economist in the State Department. He resigned in 1929 to conduct a financial mission to China with Kemmerer.
Foreign adviser
In 1918, Young worked as an adviser on taxation and public finance to the government of Mexico. While helping to reform the tax system, he also sought to improve relations between Washington and President Venustiano Carranza. He also served as an adviser to the government of Honduras. The Honduras government, operating on two currency systems, asked Young to write a rehabilitation plan for the domestic economy. In 1924, Young advised the Dawes Commission, which was tasked with reforming Germany's public finance. At the request of Secretary of StateCharles Evans Hughes, he began work as an economic adviser for the Reparations Commission in Paris. He served as a technical adviser to the members of the 1924 Dawes Commission, which focused on renegotiating German reparation payments. His goal was to facilitate reparation payments, while also appeasing Franco-Belgian demands following the occupation of the Ruhr. Young served as an economic adviser to help establish the Central Reserve Bank of China in 1936. He served as a permanent adviser to Chiang Kai-shekshek from 1929 to 1947. During World War II, he served as Chairman of the Commission on Relief and Rehabilitation. He also served as the director of the China National Aviation Corporation. He also worked at various institutions and organizations in China, including as Vice President of the Chinese-American Institute of Cultural Relations, Trustee of the China Foundation, and Chairman of the American Relief and Red Cross. In 1951, Young conducted an advisory mission to Saudi Arabia, where he was appointed Director of the Point Four program, a series of technical recommendations for developing countries outlined by President Harry S. Truman in January 1949. King Abd al-Aziz appointed him and a commission of economists to reform the budgetary and monetary systems. While Young's original plan was to create a central bank, he later drafted a charter for the creation of a currency board, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, in 1952. He believed that the monetary arrangement would have helped to prevent the government from printing more money, thereby causing inflation. Young later served as a consultant to the government of Argentina.
Retirement
Following his return to the US in 1958, Young served as a financial consultant and lecturer at Occidental College. He died on July 19, 1984 in a retirement home in Claremont, California.
