Alumni Profiles: Dr. Junsen Zhang ’86, ’90 Social Sciences (Economics)
Junsen Zhang received a 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. He is currently Wei Lun Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics, Chinese University of Hong Kong. Before returning to Hong Kong, he was Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics, University of Western Ontario. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society. His research (both theoretical and empirical) has focused on the economics of family behaviour, 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 ageing, social security, and economic growth. Using many data sets from different countries (regions), either micro or macro, he has studied economic issues in Canada, the US, the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, as well as Mainland China.
Prof. Zhang has published over 90 papers in major refereed international journals. Many of them were published in 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 Editor of the Journal of Population Economics since 2001, and had been the President of the Hong Kong Economic Association from 2007 to 2011. He is a member of the McMaster Alumni Gallery and was a recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2016.
