jonathan.zhang@duke.edu
286 Rubenstein Hall
302 Towerview Road
Durham, NC 27708
Google Scholar
I am an Assistant Professor at Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University and Faculty Research Fellow at National Bureau of Economic Research. I am also affiliated with the US Veterans Affairs Office of Mental Health. Previously, I was on the faculty at McMaster University and a Postdoctoral Scholar at Princeton University. I received my PhD in Economics from Stanford University in 2020 and my BSc from UBC.
My research fields span health economics and public finance. I study the impacts of physician behavior, health policies, and safety net programs on well-being. Thematically, I am particularly interested in the areas of mental health and substance use
Lives vs. Livelihoods: The Impact of the Great Recession on Mortality and Welfare, (with Amy Finkelstein, Matthew Notowidigdo, and Frank Schilbach), November 2024, Conditionally Accepted, Quarterly Journal of Economics.
Invisible Wounds: How Mental Disability Benefits Shape Veteran Well-Being (with David Silver), November 2024, Conditionally Accepted, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.
Intergenerational Mobility of Immigrants by Refugee Status: An Analysis of Linked Landing Files and Tax Records (with Wifag Adnan and Angela Zheng), March 2024, Revisions Requested, Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics.
Intergenerational Mobility of Immigrants in 15 Destination Countries , Boustan, Jensen, Abramitzky et al. 2025 (38 author collaboration), February 2025.
Economics:
Can Educational Outreach Improve Experts’ Decision Making? Evidence from a National Opioid Academic Detailing Program , Review of Economics and Statistics, Forthcoming.
Sliding into Safety Net Participation: A Unified Analysis Across Multiple Programs (with Derek Wu) , National Tax Journal, Forthcoming.
Socioeconomic Status and Access to Mental Health Care: The Case of Psychiatric Medications for Children in Ontario Canada (with Janet Currie and Paul Kurdyak), Journal of Health Economics, 2024.
Doing More with Less: Predicting Primary Care Provider Effectiveness (with Janet Currie), Review of Economics and Statistics, 2025 (Accepted 2022).
Primary Care Providers’ Influence on Opioid Use and Its Adverse Consequences (with Sarah Eichmeyer), Journal of Public Economics, 2023.
Pathways into Opioid Dependence: Evidence from Practice Variation in Emergency Departments (with Sarah Eichmeyer), American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2022.
Hospital Avoidance and Unintended Deaths During the COVID-19 Pandemic , American Journal of Health Economics, 2021.
Consolidation of Primary Care Physicians and Its Impact on Healthcare Utilization (with Yiwei Chen, Liran Einav, Jonathan Levin, and Jay Bhattacharya), Health Economics, 2021.
What to Expect When You Are Expecting: Are Health Care Consumers Forward-Looking? (with Audrey Guo), Journal of Health Economics, 2019.
Health Policy:
High-Risk Emergency Department Visits as a Near-Term Predictor of All-Cause Mortality, Suicide, and Fatal Overdose among U.S. Military Veterans (with Mathew V. Kiang, Holly Elser, and Keith Humphreys), American Journal of Epidemiology, 2025.
Prescribing of Opioid Analgesics and Buprenorphine for Opioid Use Disorder During the COVID-19 Pandemic (with Janet Currie, Molly Schnell, and Hannes Schwandt), JAMA Network Open, 2021.
Trends in Overdose Mortality in Ohio During the First 7 Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic (with Janet Currie, Molly Schnell, and Hannes Schwandt), JAMA Network Open, 2021.
Mental Health Treatment and the Role of Tele-Mental Health at the Veterans Health Administration During the COVID-19 Pandemic (with Matt Boden and Jodie Trafton), Psychological Services, 2021.
The Effects of Suicide Hotlines on Health: Evidence from 988 Implementation (with Benjamin Hansen and Niketana Kannan), March 2025.
Invisible Wounds: How Mental Disability Benefits Shape Veteran Well-Being (with David Silver), November 2024, Conditionally Accepted, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy .
Can Educational Outreach Improve Experts’ Decision Making? Evidence from a National Opioid Academic Detailing Program , Review of Economics and Statistics, Forthcoming.
High-Risk Emergency Department Visits as a Near-Term Predictor of All-Cause Mortality, Suicide, and Fatal Overdose among U.S. Military Veterans (with Mathew V. Kiang, Holly Elser, and Keith Humphreys), American Journal of Epidemiology, 2025
Socioeconomic Status and Access to Mental Health Care: The Case of Psychiatric Medications for Children in Ontario Canada (with Janet Currie and Paul Kurdyak), Journal of Health Economics, 2024.
Doing More with Less: Predicting Primary Care Provider Effectiveness (with Janet Currie), Review of Economics and Statistics, 2025 (Accepted 2022).
Primary Care Providers’ Influence on Opioid Use and Its Adverse Consequences (with Sarah Eichmeyer), Journal of Public Economics , 2023.
Pathways into Opioid Dependence: Evidence from Practice Variation in Emergency Departments (with Sarah Eichmeyer), American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2022.
Prescribing of Opioid Analgesics and Buprenorphine for Opioid Use Disorder During the COVID-19 Pandemic (with Janet Currie, Molly Schnell, and Hannes Schwandt), JAMA Network Open, 2021
Trends in Overdose Mortality in Ohio During the First 7 Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic (with Janet Currie, Molly Schnell, and Hannes Schwandt), JAMA Network Open, 2021
Mental Health Treatment and the Role of Tele-Mental Health at the Veterans Health Administration During the COVID-19 Pandemic (with Matt Boden and Jodie Trafton), Psychological Services, 2021
Intergenerational Mobility of Immigrants in 15 Destination Countries , Boustan, Jensen, Abramitzky et al. 2025 (38 author collaboration), February 2025.
Lives vs. Livelihoods: The Impact of the Great Recession on Mortality and Welfare, (with Amy Finkelstein, Matthew Notowidigdo, and Frank Schilbach), November 2024, Conditionally Accepted, Quarterly Journal of Economics.
Invisible Wounds: How Mental Disability Benefits Shape Veteran Well-Being (with David Silver), November 2024, Conditionally Accepted, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy .
Intergenerational Mobility of Immigrants by Refugee Status: An Analysis of Linked Landing Files and Tax Records (with Wifag Adnan and Angela Zheng), March 2024, Revisions Requested, Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics..
Sliding into Safety Net Participation: A Unified Analysis Across Multiple Programs (with Derek Wu) , National Tax Journal, Forthcoming.
Can Educational Outreach Improve Experts’ Decision Making? Evidence from a National Opioid Academic Detailing Program , Review of Economics and Statistics, Forthcoming.
Socioeconomic Status and Access to Mental Health Care: The Case of Psychiatric Medications for Children in Ontario Canada (with Janet Currie and Paul Kurdyak), Journal of Health Economics, 2024.
Doing More with Less: Predicting Primary Care Provider Effectiveness (with Janet Currie), Review of Economics and Statistics, 2025 (Accepted 2022).
Primary Care Providers’ Influence on Opioid Use and Its Adverse Consequences (with Sarah Eichmeyer), Journal of Public Economics , 2023.
Pathways into Opioid Dependence: Evidence from Practice Variation in Emergency Departments (with Sarah Eichmeyer), American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2022.
Consolidation of Primary Care Physicians and Its Impact on Healthcare Utilization (with Yiwei Chen, Liran Einav, Jonathan Levin, and Jay Bhattacharya), Health Economics, 2021.