Guangli Zhang
Assistant Research Professor
Contact
Email: guangli@wustl.edu
Education
PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara
Areas of Focus
Household finance and financial wellbeing
Cash transfers and economic mobility
Public benefits and administrative burden
Labor markets, education, and human capital
Program evaluation using administrative and alternative data
Biography
Guangli Zhang, PhD, is a Research Assistant Professor at the Brown School and the t at Washington University in St. Louis. He is an applied economist whose research lies at the intersection of public economics, labor economics, and household finance.
His work examines how public policies, income shocks, and institutional systems shape household financial well-being, access to opportunity, and economic mobility. His current research includes studies of cash transfers, public benefits and administrative burden, household credit and debt, financial inclusion, and the ways evaluation systems and algorithms can reinforce disparities in performance and opportunity.
Zhang uses experiments, quasi-experimental methods, and large-scale administrative, credit-report, survey, geospatial, and other alternative data. He collaborates with researchers, policymakers, and community partners to evaluate programs and translate complex data into policy-relevant evidence.
Before joining the Brown School faculty, Zhang was a postdoctoral fellow in finance at Saint Louis University. He earned his PhD in Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.