Jinyuan Zhang

Biography

Jinyuan Zhang’s expertise lies in the area of financial intermediation, encompassing banking, pension funds and mutual funds. She joined the UCLA Anderson School of Management as an assistant professor of finance in 2021.

She studies the micro implications of macro policies. “People often view microeconomics and macroeconomics separately,” she says. “However, some overlooked impacts of macro policies on individuals’ decision making can influence the economy profoundly.” Her recent research shows that households reallocate savings between bank deposits and stocks in response to large state public pension deficits, and such reallocations affect local bank lending, business establishments and employment.

Zhang says pure curiosity led her to her field of study. She watches with deep interest how people respond to big events. She’s also fascinated by the evolution of FinTech and teaches in Anderson’s Master of Financial Engineering program. “There is no doubt that FinTech enables us to deal with economic challenges that were previously impossible to overcome,” she says. In ongoing research, she and her co-author find that when uncertainty about economic policy increases, it intensifies the distrust against local government. As a result, Zhang says, “investors flee to Bitcoin. It’s driven more by the lack of confidence in local authorities and by investors’ risk aversion than it is by circumventing capital controls or hedging against market crashes.”

She received her Ph.D. in finance from INSEAD in France, her M.Sc. from UBC in Canada her and B.Sc. from CUHK in Hong Kong. Blessed with these transcultural experiences across the three continents, she embraces diversity, equity and inclusion. “I believe DEI is critical to creating an integrated community that fosters exchanges of ideas and values. The key is not to judge, keep an open mind.”