Bio

Dr Yinjunjie Zhang is a Research Fellow at the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute (TTPI) in the Crawford School of Public Policy, with part of her research interest in China education and charitable giving behaviour. She currently is working on examining the hidden high school dropout rate in the poor regions of China. Regional disparities in the economic development of China over the past several decades have generated differential impacts on the incentives to invest in education. Even with compulsory education laws, the compliance rate has been proved very low in many local areas. Quitting school early and becoming a migrant worker could immediately alleviate the financial burden for some low-income families. But, interrupting human capital accumulation at a very young age may have an irreversible negative effect on individuals’ financial situation later in life. By running field trials, this project intends to understand the underlying motives of high school dropout and investigate ways to affect the decision-making process to change the situation. Beside the projects on China, Dr Zhang has publications and research projects studying Family Violence, Gender Difference, and Firm Behavior in the US and Australia.