David Zhang is an assistant professor of finance at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. His research focuses on real estate finance and household finance. He graduated with a Ph.D. in business economics from Harvard University/Harvard Business School and a B.A. in economics and mathematics from Amherst College. Before starting graduate school, David was a research assistant at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in its Consumer Payments Research Center. In 2024, he won the prestigious Jensen Prize for his co-authored paper with Paul Willen from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and Kris Gerardi of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Their research, published in the Journal of Financial Economics, explores the link between mortgage rates and race.