About

Hello! I am Jinwei (Will) Zhang, a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the University of Washington. I am fortunate to be advised by Professor Eric Zivot and Professor Jing Tao in Economics, Professor Mingwen Yang at the Foster School of Business, and Professor Ting Ye in Biostatistics.

My research studies how new technologies and market shocks reshape economic decisions, from how users invest to how firms allocate resources. I focus on the mechanisms through which these changes alter behavior and outcomes, in digital finance, platform design, AI adoption and integration, business operations, and economic policy.

Methodologically, I develop and apply causal-inference and econometric tools to measure these effects. I use difference-in-differences, instrumental variables, and weighting-based and doubly robust estimators, along with dynamic programming for firm decision problems. My econometric work extends instrumented difference-in-differences to multiple time periods and staggered adoption.

I earned my M.A. in Economics from the University of Washington and my B.A. from the University of California, Davis. Beyond academia, I founded and lead an international e-commerce business that sells through Shopify, Amazon, and physical stores, where I manage pricing, inventory planning, supply-chain coordination, and digital marketing.