He specializes in urban and regional economics. His research interests include entrepreneurship and job creation, urbanization in China, high-tech industrial clusters, regional development, and racial housing segregation. Zhang received a B.A. from Renmin University of China and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, both in economics. He was a dissertation fellow at the Brookings Institution during 2000-2001. Before joining Clark University in 2006, he worked as a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California.