Hanzhe Zhang (张瀚哲)

Welcome to my homepage! My name is Hanzhe Zhang (张瀚哲). I am interim Mark A. Simon distinguished associate professor and director of graduate admissions in the economics department at Michigan State University, and a co-editor of Canadian Journal of Economics. I am also an affiliate of Asian Studies Center, Diversity Research Network, Evolution and Future of Work Initiative, and Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior Program at Michigan State University, and Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Global Working Group at University of Chicago. My research and teaching interests are microeconomics, matching theory, game theory (e.g., bargaining, auctions, evolution), labor economics, family economics, and their applications to interdisciplinary and teaching settings. I obtained my economics PhD from University of Chicago under advisors Nobel laureate Gary Becker and American Academy of Arts and Sciences member Phil Reny in 2015, MA math, BA math and economics with honors, and Wharton statistics minor from University of Pennsylvania in 2010.

I have published in leading economics journals such as Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Economic Theory, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, and leading interdisciplinary journals such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Sustainable Cities and Society, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, and International Journal of Epidemiology. My research has been funded by leading public and private entities such as National Science Foundation, Amazon, Anthropic, Microsoft, and Yahoo.

MSU's Microeconomic Theory Group has regular group meetings in internal brown bag on Wednesdays, reading group on Thursdays, and external seminar on Fridays. The economics department hosts many wonderful seminars!

HIRING

MSU Economics is hiring an assistant professor in microeconomic theory: apply here.
I am always seeking help from talented high school, undergraduate, and graduate students worldwide. My research assistants have gone on to pursue PhD degrees at top schools such as Princeton, Yale, MIT, Penn, Rochester, Penn State, and NUS and master's degrees at top schools such as Chicago, Columbia, Duke, Cambridge, Oxford, and LSE. See details here. At MSU, I have great experience working with Econ Scholars and Honors College professorial assistants. Please reach out to me for research opportunities.

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NEWS

💰 08/26: Educational rat race in Asia funded by MSU Asian Studies Center Dr. Koo Faculty Endowment Award.
📖 05/26: Self-enforced job matching in American Economic Journal: Microeconomics.
💰 04/26: Adapting to AI: Experimental evidence on human capital responses to technological disruption funded by Anthropic.
🔈 12/25: Why are so many young women moving to China's big cities? in VoxChina.
📖 10/25: Changes in marital sorting: Theory and evidence from the US lead article in Journal of Political Economy.
📖 10/25: Pay it forward: Theory and experiment in Games and Economic Behavior.
🏆 09/25: interim Mark A. Simon distinguished associate professor for the 2025-2027 academic years.
🏆 08/25: Michigan Speed Chess Championship 2nd place among the unrated players.
💰 08/25: Economics doctoral students from the Republic of China to North America funded by MSU Asian Studies Center Dr. Koo Faculty Endowment Award.
📖 07/25: Reputational bargaining with external resolution opportunities in Review of Economic Studies.
🔈 07/25: Co-editor of Canadian Journal of Economics from July 1, 2025.
📖 06/25: How homebuyers’ cognition and affect shape their attitude on green buildings accepted by Journal of Green Building.
💰 03/25: Education and career histories of economics faculty funded by MSU Provost Undergraduate Research Initiative.
📖 02/25: Borrowing stigma and lender of last resort policies in Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.
📖 01/25: Young women in cities: Urbanization and gender-biased migration in Journal of Development Economics.
📖 11/24: Decentralized matching with transfers: Experimental and noncooperative analyses in American Economic Journal: Microeconomics.
💰 10/24: 120 years of economics PhDs in North America funded by MSU Provost Undergraduate Research Initiative.
🔈 09/24: Visiting New York University for sabbatical in Fall 2024.
🔈 08/24: High and rising institutional concentration of elite researchers covered by media such as Financial Times, Firstpost, Guardian, and the Atlantic.
🔈 07/24: Plenary speaker, "High and rising institutional concentration of elite researchers" at International Conference on the Science of Science and Innovation.
💰 04/24: Education and career trajectories of National Academy of Sciences members funded by MSU Provost Undergraduate Research Initiative.
📖 03/24: Iterative development of dynamic student project team interventions in Construction Research Congress.
💰 02/24: Young women in Chinese cities funded by MSU Asian Studies Center Dr. Koo Faculty Endowment Award.
💰 12/23: Empirical and game-theoretic investigations of generative AI on accounting fraud funded by MSU Strategic Partnership Grant.
💰 11/23: Gender and racial diversity of economists funded by MSU Diversity Research Network Launch Award Program.
💰 10/23: The market for Nobel laureates funded by MSU Provost Undergraduate Research Initiative.
📖 09/23: Iterative development of dynamic student project team interventions accepted by Construction Research Congress.
🔈 07/23: Promoted to associate professor with tenure!
📖 06/23: Marital preferences and stable matching in cultural evolution in Journal of Economic Theory.
📖 06/23: Profit versus sustainability in bikeshare in Sustainable Cities and Society.
💰 05/23: Team collaboration and machine learning funded by MSU Pathway to Research Program.
💰 05/23: Assortative matching and machine learning funded by National Science Foundation REU.
💰 05/23: Assortative matching by heterosexual and homosexual couples funded by MSU Provost Undergraduate Research Initiative.
📖 02/23: A marriage-market perspective on risk-taking and career choices in European Economic Review.
🔈featured on Femina, the oldest magazine for women in India
💰 01/23: Predicting successful scientific collaborations funded by Amazon Research Awards.
🔈featured on major Chinese media outlets such as Tencent, Sohu, Sina, 163, and Zhihu.
📖 12/22: Assortative mating on blood type: Evidence from one million Chinese pregnancies in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
🔈featured on popular blogs such as Marginal Revolution, National Affairs, and Bipartisan Alliance.
🔈featured on major Chinese media outlets such as Tencent, Sohu, Sina, Zhihu, Tsinghua, and Yahoo Taiwan.
📖 11/22: Decision model to optimize long-term subsidy strategy for green building promotion in Sustainable Cities and Society.
💰 10/22: Assortative matching by heterosexual and homosexual couples funded by MSU Provost Undergraduate Research Initiative.
📖 07/22: Polarization, antipathy, and political activism lead article in Economic Inquiry.
🔈featured on MSU Social Science News.
💰 05/22: Can machine learning help team performance? funded by National Science Foundation REU.
💰 05/22: Can machine learning help team performance? funded by Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP) for underrepresented students (mentor).
🔈 04/22: Can machine learning help team performance? featured presentation at MSU Science Festival and Gardner International Magnet School.
🔈 04/22: NSF spotlight covers our student worksessions.
📖 03/22: Project team collaboration during disruptions: transaction costs, knowledge flows and social network theory in Construction Research Congress.
💰 03/22: Men dang hu dui: Assortative mating in China funded by MSU Asian Studies Center Dr. Koo Faculty Endowment Award.
💰 11/21: Helping females, underrepresented minorities, and international students via intelligent multidisciplinary interventions of student project teams funded by MSU Diversity Research Network Launch Award Program.
📖 11/21: Prices versus auctions in large markets in Economic Theory.
📖 08/21: Preference evolution in different matching markets in European Economic Review.
📖 06/21: Tractable cubic cost functions for teaching microeconomics in Applied Economics Teaching Resources.
💰 05/21: Laboratory experiments on labor market matching and negotiation funded by MSU Faculty Initiatives Fund.
📖 05/21: An investment-and-marriage model with differential fecundity: on the college gender gap in Journal of Political Economy.
📖 04/21: The optimal sequence of prices and auctions in European Economic Review.
💰 09/20: RAPID: Responding to COVID-19 challenges in preparation of future of work funded by National Science Foundation (co-PI, $240,000).
📖 09/20: Evolutionary justifications for overconfidence in Economics Bulletin.
📖 05/20: Pre-matching gambles in Games and Economic Behavior.
🏆 03/20: Overcoming borrowing stigma: the design of lending-of-last-resort policies best paper award from Midwest Finance Association.
🏆 09/19: Overcoming borrowing stigma: the design of lending-of-last-resort policies best paper award from Eastern Finance Association.
💰 09/19: FW-HTF-RM: Intelligent social network interventions to augment human cognition for bolstered interdisciplinary interactions in project teams funded by National Science Foundation (co-PI, $1.2 million).