Ji Zhang
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
Placement Officer:
Placement Assistant:
Michelle White
Suzi Harlow
HOME ADDRESS AND TELEPHONE:
9310A Redwood Drive,
La Jolla, CA 92037
(858) 405-1746
j5zhang@ucsd.edu
http://econweb.ucsd.edu/~j5zhang
(858) 534-2783
(858) 534-1867
miwhite@ucsd.edu
sharlow@ucsd.edu
OFFICE ADDRESS AND TELEPHONE:
Department of Economics
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive, 0534
La Jolla, CA 92093-0534
(858) 534-1867
EDUCATION:
Ph.D., Economics, University of California, San Diego, 2013 (expected)
M.A., Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, 2008
B.A., Economics and Mathematics, Wuhan University, China, 2006
DISSERTATION:
THESIS TITLE: Essays on Macro Policies in Models with Labor Market Search Frictions
EXPECTED COMPLETION DATE: June 2013
THESIS COMMITTEE AND REFERENCES:
Prof. James D. Hamilton (Chair)
Prof. Davide Debortoli
Prof. Irina A. Telyukova
University of California,
San Diego
Economics Department
9500 Gilman Dr. #0508
La Jolla, CA 92093-0508
858-534-5986
jhamilton@ucsd.edu
University of California,
San Diego
Economics Department
9500 Gilman Dr. #0508
La Jolla, CA 92093-0508
858-822-0645
ddebortoli@ucsd.edu
University of California,
San Diego
Economics Department
9500 Gilman Dr. #0508
La Jolla, CA 92093-0508
858-822-2097
itelyukova@ucsd.edu
DESIRED TEACHING AND RESEARCH:
Primary Fields: Macroeconomics, Monetary Policy, Unemployment Theory, Financial Frictions
Secondary Fields: Financial Market, Applied Econometrics
TEACHING EXPERIENCE:
2008-present
Teaching Assistant, University of California, San Diego
Econ 3 (Principle of Macroeconomics)
Econ 110A (Macroeconomics)
Econ 120B (Econometrics)
Econ 172B (Operations Research)
Ji Zhang
HONORS, SCHOLARSHIPS, AND FELLOWSHIPS:
2008-present
2011
2010
2009
Graduate Student Tuition Scholarship, Department of Economics, UCSD
Research Fellowship, UCSD
Summer Graduate Research Grant, UCSD
Summer Graduate Research Grant, UCSD
RESEARCH IN PROGRESS:
Liquidity Shocks and Macroeconomic Policies in a Model with Labor Market Search Frictions
(Job Market Paper)
By introducing a frictional labor market into a Kiyotaki-Moore model, I study the effectiveness of several
policies in rescuing the economy from a financial crisis resulting from a negative liquidity shock. I find
that in a model with endogenous job separation and real wage rigidity, extended unemployment benefits
could slightly alleviate the big decline in output caused by the liquidity shock and benefit current
consumption significantly, but raise unemployment and slow the recovery of the labor market.
Unconventional monetary intervention, which exchanges government liquidity for private paper, and
fiscal expansion are very effective in stabilizing output, although consumption would not be improved
much by the latter option. The presence of the zero lower bound on the nominal interest rate is needed to
get the above results. However, if the labor market is instead characterized by exogenous separation and
nominal wage rigidity, the zero lower bound is relatively unimportant because of different inflation
dynamics.
Endogenous Separation and Unemployment in an Estimated Monetary DSGE Model
I estimate a DSGE model with search and matching frictions, endogenous separation, and real wage
rigidities to examine the main driving forces behind unemployment fluctuations. In contrast to existing
models, the effects of unemployment benefits and matching efficiencies are included. I find that a shock to
unemployment benefits is important for unemployment fluctuations. This finding is robust to different
measures of unemployment benefits. On the other hand, matching efficiency changes have little effect.
Robustness checking shows that data favor a counter-cyclical endogenous separation rate. Moreover, an
endogenous separation rate helps generate more volatile unemployment by amplifying most shocks.
Monetary Policy and the Real Interest Rate under Different Identification Methods
In my previous papers, all the policies have significant impacts on the economy via exactly the same
mechanism, -- manipulating the real interest rate by affecting people’s inflation expectation while the
nominal rate is stuck at zero. It therefore seems crucial to examine whether this channel works the same
way in the real world. For this reason, I use different identification methods to study the impact of
monetary policies on the real interest rate empirically both before and after the nominal interest rate hit
the zero lower bound. The methods I use include event study, identification through heteroskedasticity,
and measuring impact of news using high frequency data. My goal is to compare the results obtained from
different methods, and explain and reconcile any differences.
PRESENTATIONS:
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
November 2011
Macroeconomics Seminar, UCSD
Graduate Student Research Seminar, UCSD
Summer Empirical Macro Lunch Seminar, UCSD
Macro Lunch Seminar, UCSD
COMPUTER SKILLS:
Matlab, Stata
Ji Zhang
LANGUAGES:
English (fluent), Chinese (native)
PERSONAL INFORMATION:
Gender: Female
Date of Birth: October 9, 1984
Citizenship: P. R. China