Dr Anwen Zhang
- Senior Lecturer (Economics)
- Associate (School of Health & Wellbeing)
telephone:
0141 330 6965
email:
Anwen.Zhang@glasgow.ac.uk
Room 6123, Adam Smith Business School, 2 Discovery Place, Glasgow, G11 6EY
Biography
Anwen Zhang is an applied microeconomist and currently a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Economics at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow. Before joining the University of Glasgow in 2019, he held postdoctoral research positions at the LSE (2015-19) and University of Cambridge (2014-15). He received his PhD in Economics from Lancaster University in 2015.
His research focuses on policy-relevant issues in health and education, with recent work aimed at understanding key factors affecting mental health.
Research interests
Anwen is a member of the Applied Economics research cluster.
Areas of expertise:
- Health Economics
- Economics of Education
- Program Evaluation
- Applied Microeconomics
Research topics
Anwen is primarily interested in studying policy-relevant issues related to health and education. His research seeks to understand the determinants of health and education outcomes, and the effects of health and education policies on these outcomes, by applying quasi-experimental methods to large-scale observational data. His current work focuses on the following inter-related topics:
- Mental health: how various factors such as religion, migration, and peers affect mental health, and the role of policy in shaping mental health outcomes.
- Schools: school inputs and outputs in education and health production, and the roles of various social elements in these processes.
- Health policy: effectiveness of health policies, health and healthcare for different demographic groups.
Grants
- British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant, PI (with Co-I Zhongliang Deng), 07.2020--06.2023
- Travel Fellowship, China Health Policy and Management Society, 2019
Supervision
Anwen is interested in advising PhD students in the areas of health economics, education economics, and applied microeconomics in general. Topics may include but are not limited to:
- Determinants and consequences of health
- Program evaluation of health/education interventions
- Economics of ageing
- Health care markets
- Schooling quality and educational production
- Health/education financing
Current supervision
- Liu, Xiangqing
Essays on Labour Economics - Long, Zhen
The Effects of Rural-Urban Migration on Returns to Education and Educational Transition in China - Mohamed, Abdisalam
Remittances, Poverty and Inequality in Somalia
Past students
- Huihui Song (Postdoc, Institute of Population Health, University of Liverpool)
Teaching
Current teaching
- MA Honours: Health Economics [moodle]
Past teaching
- MSc: Research Methods & Dissertation Training (for CDS and CEFS) [moodle]
- MA Honours: Skills Workshop [moodle]
- MA Honours: Econometrics 1 (tutorials and labs) [moodle] [materials]
- MA Honours: Econometrics 2 (tutorials and labs) [moodle] [materials]
- Level 1: Economics 1A [moodle]
Office
- Room 6123, Adam Smith Business School
Office hours
- Friday 15:30-16:30 during term time, please make an appointment below
Additional information
Administrative services
- Deputy Lead, Applied Economics Research Cluster, 2023/24-present
- Engagement Lead for Economics, 2021/22-present
- Complaints and Academic Integrity Officer, 2020/21-2023/24
- Co-organiser, Applied Economics Seminar Series, 2020/21-2022/23
- Deputy Director, Graduate Centre for Development Studies, 2021/22
Media coverage of research
- "「見た目がいい10代の若者」は平均的な若者より多く飲酒してしまう可能性", Gigazine, 3 Aug 2024.
- "Youth | Research: Appearance in connection with adolescent alcohol use", Pledge Times, 10 Jul 2024.
- "Tutkimus: Ulkonäkö yhteydessä teini-ikäisen alkoholinkäyttöön", Helsingin Sanomat, 9 Jul 2024.
- "Attractiveness May Influence Teens' Tendency For Risky Behaviors", Science Alert, 6 July 2024.
- "Frumusețea nu aduce fericire. Ce se întâmplă cu oamenii care arată prea bine?", Descopera, 3 Jul 2024.
- "Skeptisk til forskinga som seier at fine folk drikk meir enn andre", NRK, 29 Jun 2024.
- "The downside of being good-looking", Medical Xpress, 27 Jun 2024.
- "How attractive appearance leads to more risky behavior among young people", News Medical, 20 June 2024.
- "Attraktive ungdommer har høyere risikoadferd, viser forskning. Men bare hvis den er ansett som «kul»", Aftenposten, 17 Jun 2024.
- "Den penes problem", Gemini, 30 May 2024.
- "A mental health crisis is brewing among Indian youth. Religion can be a lifeline", The Print, 27 March 2024.
- "Are Your Parents Hot? You Might Earn More Money, Study Finds", Mental Floss, 14 Feb 2024.
- "Can having attractive parents increase your chances of getting rich?", CBS News, 9 Feb 2024.
- "The 'beauty bubble' is real. Just ask the man who’s been studying the link between being hot and making more money for 30 years", Fortune, 3 Feb 2024.
- "Making the Religion-Health Research Foundation Even Stronger", Psychology Today, 28 Dec 2023.
- "Insomnia in Healthcare Workers Worsened During the Pandemic", Medscape, 8 Dec 2021.
- "COVID-19: Anstieg von Ängsten und Depressionen bei Ärzten", Deutsches Ärzteblatt, 3 Nov 2021.
- "UK Doctors Experience Long-term Mental Health Effects of COVID-19", Medscape, 3 Nov 2021.
- "Research confirms impact of Covid-19 on doctors' mental health", The Independent, 3 Nov 2021.
- "Study finds high levels of anxiety, depression among medical doctors during COVID-19 pandemic", News Medical, 2 Nov 2021.
- "Depression and anxiety rife among doctors during first and second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, study finds", Medical Xpress, 2 Nov, 2021
- "Doctors across the world are feeling depressed and traumatized. That's bad news for patients", Salon, 3 Nov 2021.
- "「人格特質」決定封城帶給你的影響!研究:外向者的心理健康更容易受創", Yahoo! News (Taiwan), 15 Jun 2021.
- "Extroverts likely to suffer higher mental health toll in Covid lockdown", Guardian, 14 Jun 2021.
- "New study reveals how different personalities are affected by lockdowns", The Jerusalem Post, 14 June, 2021.
- "The science is in: Faith can be effective against adolescent depression", America, 19 Aug 2019.
- "High Blood Pressure In China Spiraling Out Of Control", Asian Scientist, 6 Nov 2017.
- "Studie: Blutdruck in China außer Kontrolle", Deutsches Ärzteblatt, 27 Oct 2017.
- "China's out of control 'silent killer' affects one-third of adults", EurekAlert!, 25 Oct 2017.
General interest writing
- "How has the pandemic affected the mental health of healthcare workers?" (with Climent Quintana-Domeque, Eugenio Proto, Michele Battisti, and Ines Lee), Economics Observatory, 2022.
- "COVID-19 and mental health of individuals with different personalities" (with Eugenio Proto), Kudos, 2021.
- "How has personality affected people’s mental health during the pandemic?" (with Eugenio Proto), Economics Obervatory, 2021.