Mortality and Aging Zang studys how early life marriage market conditions and household structures affect later life mortality risks. Her work co-authored with Cameron Campbell (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) investigates the effect of early life co-residence with paternal grandparents on mortality risks in adulthood and older age using registration data from historical China (Demography, 2018). Using the same data, her work co-authored with Hui Zheng (Ohio State University) investigates the effect of sex ratio at sexual maturity on later life mortality risks (Social Science & Medicine, 2018).
Zang's recent work focuses on mortality and life course methodology. She is especially interested in Bayesian demographic modeling and age-period-cohort analysis. She has worked with Kenneth Land (Duke University) and others on the age-period-cohort model (APC) using the intrinsic estimator (IE) (American Journal of Sociology, 2016). With Hui Zheng (Ohio State University), Claire Yang (UNC-Chapel Hill), and Kenneth Land (Duke University), she has also investigated the racial disparities in the age-period-cohort effect on overall and cause-specific mortality in the United States (PAA Annual Meeting, 2017). Her ongoing project with Scott Lynch (Duke University) explores Bayesian approaches to making multi-state life tables using survey data, and applies it to study regional differences in mortality in the U.S (PAA Annual Meeting, 2018). She also works on Bayesian approaches to modeling group-based trajectories.
Public Policy and Gender Inequality in Contemporary China Zang's dissertation focuses on public policy and gender inequality in China. The first chapter investigates the causal effect of a recent change in Chinese divorce laws on men's and women's welfare (PAA Annual Meeting, 2018). The second chapter examines the spillover effect of the husband's retirement on the wife's well-being in China, adopting a fuzzy regression discontinuity design. Her dissertation shows how seemingly gender-neutral policies could have adverse consequences on women.
Social Mobility and Inequality Zang has worked on the patterns and consequences of inter- and intra-generational mobility. Her work co-authored with Nan Dirk de Graaf (University of Oxford) examines the association of both inter- and intra-generational social mobility with happiness in China (Sociological Science, 2016). Her work co-authored with James Lee (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) investigates the association between parental industrial sector and children’s choice of major in China after 1949. In a working project with Xi Song (University of Chicago) and Kenneth Land (Duke University), they focus on income dynamics over the individual’s life course and examine the association of income trajectories across generations in the U.S (PAA Annual Meeting, 2017). She has also investigated the educational differentials in parity-specific fertility levels and timing in the U.S (PAA Annual Meeting, 2018).