Dr. Zhang received a B.A. from Renmin University of China, an M.A. from Clark University, and a Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University. He was a dissertation fellow at the Brookings Institution during 2000-2001, and he worked as a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California before joining Clark in 2006. He served as the president of the Chinese Economists Society (CES) from 2019-2020.
Dr. Zhang specializes in applied microeconomics, with a focus on urban and regional economics. His research interests include urbanization in China, regional economic development, entrepreneurship and job creation, and racial housing segregation. He teaches microeconomic theory, applied game theory, and urban economics.