Jacquelyn Zhang
PhD (Texas A&M)
Applied microeconomics; behavioural economics; public policy and decision‑making; labour economics; environmental economics
Biography
Dr. Yinjunjie Zhang (Jacquelyn) received her PhD in Agricultural Economics from Texas A&M University in 2018. Prior to joining Curtin University in 2025, she had been working in Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University since 2018 and held a Fellow position.
Her research sits at the intersection of applied microeconomics and behavioural economics, with a common thread of informing the impacts of public policies on people’s decision-making and preferences. She has established a strong record of scholarship in labour economics, environmental economics, development economics, and experimental economics. Her work has been recognised with the 2024 Kuznets Prize and has attracted broader media attention.
Projects
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Valuing financial counselling in Western Australia
Financial Counsellors’ Association of Western Australia (FCAWA) is seeking research to build a stronger evidence base about the economic and social value of financial counselling in Western Australia, and to better understand the outcomes it achieves, where it has the... Read article
Designing integrated, person-centred models through population and health planning
Advance Ageing WA commissioned a comprehensive and forward-looking program of research to design aged care models that are rights-based, person-centred, and fully integrated with the health system. This project will anticipate the needs of a diverse and ageing Western Australian... Read article
Publications
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Cross-Country Analysis of Labor Markets during the COVID-19 Pandemic
The authors study employment outcomes during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic across eight countries exhibiting different case levels and policy responses: the United States, Australia, France, Denmark, Italy, South Korea, Spain, and Sweden. While the proportion of people... Read article
Unseen damage: Bushfire, infant health and early child development
Naturally occurring bushfires have become a global concern, with epidemiological evidence highlighting the unique toxicity of bushfire smoke compared to ambient air pollution. Leveraging remote-sensing data and a novel dynamic-radius fire assignment strategy, this paper causally examines the longitudinal impacts... Read article
The Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre team acknowledges the Wadjuk Nyungar people as the traditional owners of the land on which the Centre is situated.