Prof. Zhang is currently Wei Lun Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research has focused on the economics of family behavior, including crime, fertility, marriage, education, intergenerational transfers, marital transfers, gender bias, and old-age support. He also works on family-related macro issues, such as aging, social security, and economic growth.
He has published over 100 papers in major refereed international journals and leading economics journals such as Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economic Studies, Economic Journal, Review of Economics and Statistics and International Economic Review, or in leading field journals such as Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Human Resources, and Journal of International Economics. He has been Co-Editor of the Journal of Population Economics since 2001 and Journal of Human Resources since February 2019, and had been the President of the Hong Kong Economic Association from 2007 to 2011.
Before returning to Hong Kong, he served as Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics of the University of Western Ontario. He obtained his B.Sc. in Engineering from Zhejiang University in 1983, and an M.A. and Ph.D. both in Economics from McMaster University in 1986 and 1990, respectively.