Research & Projects

Zhang, J., Wang, P., Chen, S. & Yang, M. Platform-Empowered Digital Finance and Traditional Investing: Spillover Effects through Financial Literacy and Risk Tolerance. Under review at Manufacturing & Service Operations Management (MSOM)

• Accepted at CIST 2026 (Conference on Information Systems and Technology)

• Scheduled presentation at INFORMS 2026

• Scheduled presentation at DSI 2026

• Uses the China Household Finance Survey and causal-inference methods (reduced-form regression, staggered difference-in-differences, inverse probability weighting, and instrumented difference-in-differences).

• We find that adopting platform-embedded digital finance complements rather than substitutes for traditional investing, raising both market participation and the risky-asset share of portfolios. The effects work mainly on the extensive margin and are consistent with improved financial literacy and a greater willingness to take financial risk.

Zhang, J. Instrumented Difference-in-Differences with Multiple Time Periods. Working paper, 2025. Available upon request.

• Extends the 2×2 instrumented difference-in-differences (IDID) estimator to multiple periods and staggered treatment timing, offering an alternative to parallel trends when unmeasured confounders drive both treatment selection and outcomes. The framework accommodates 2SLS, inverse probability weighting, and doubly robust estimation, with aggregation schemes for common target parameters.

Zhang, J. & Wang, P. Business Relationships and Resource Allocation in Technology Supply Networks

• Studies how prior business relationships relate to future business-win and product delivery rates in semiconductor industry, and how the 2021–22 chip shortage changed that relationship.

Research Assistant

England Project, Department of Economics, UC Davis (with Gregory Clark), Jun 2018 – Jun 2019

• Analyzed seven-generation genealogical data (1750–2018) on intergenerational mobility, longevity, and long-run economic outcomes

• Built procedures for deciphering, extracting, and cleaning historical records; improved record-linkage accuracy across datasets

• Contributed to the long-run mobility research agenda following "The Son Also Rises"