Christine Byrd for UC Irvine School of Social Sciences
Cassie Zhang was creating lessons for children in Kenya and rural China who lacked basic educational resources when she started reflecting on her background in economics. She wondered if she could make a bigger impact by helping people make better-informed economic decisions for their social welfare.
The question brought Zhang back to her alma mater to pursue a doctorate in UC Irvine’s economics department — ranked among the nation’s top 20 public economics graduate programs in the U.S. Now in the fifth year of her doctoral program, Zhang has spent the better part of a decade as an Anteater, while her parents remain 6,000 miles away in China. The campus has become a second home, while her faculty mentors and the students she has guided, have become like family.
“We’re not here by ourselves. With UCI’s supportive environment, you have company. You always have supportive peers and mentors to keep going and help you find your way,” Zhang says. “And then, looking back on how far you’ve come, you are able to mentor others, continuing this great circle of support.”
Education abroad
When Zhang came to UC Irvine as an undergraduate in 2013, she was interested in helping international students understand the rules and processes they needed to succeed.
“People then mainly thought international students faced language barriers and culture shock, but I think there’s way more to it,” Zhang says. “I wanted to ensure students had a voice, and that schools understood international students’ needs.”
Zhang’s empathy stemmed from her own difficult transition. Her parents sent her abroad for high school because they feared she could not get into a good college in China. But at her private international school in California, Zhang felt manipulated by administrators who required her to take additional tutoring – which cost her family more. On top of that, peers bullied her for befriending classmates outside of her own nationality. The experience made her more sensitive to peers who may be struggling in silence.
At UC Irvine, she provided peer mentorship and guidance through the International Center, LGBT Resource Center, and School of Social Sciences Undergraduate Student Affairs Office. Zhang also developed strong connections with UC Irvine faculty in economics and international studies, which she double majored in.
“I love UCI and the economics department,” says Zhang. “They want you to pursue what you’re interested in, try different things, and they will support you in ways I don’t think you can get anywhere else.”
After graduating from the School of Social Sciences with the Order of Merit and Chancellor’s Award of Distinction in 2017, Zhang pursued a master’s in International Comparative Education from Stanford University. Zhang’s time in the master’s program coincided with the outbreak of COVID-19 in her hometown. The fear and helplessness she felt in the early months for her family in Wuhan, China, only became clear to her peers and professors later, when the pandemic reached their own community. This gap in how she experienced the outbreak further fueled her desire to support international students in their educational journeys.
For her thesis, she drew on her strengths in economics and math to develop a theorem that describes how mental health impacts international students’ academic performance. For example, she found some Chinese international students experience a combination of familial pressure and a fixed mindset that creates significant stress – enough to negatively impact academic performance.
Economics to address social challenges
Zhang started working in international education, joining the non-governmental organization Education Without Barriers, where she developed online curriculum for underserved students in Kenya and rural China. But that role quickly brought her full circle back to economics.
“I witnessed how financial constraints impact educational opportunities. Those experiences, especially during the pandemic, shifted my focus to economics,” Zhang says. “I wanted to understand how governments and companies affect consumer and social welfare, and use economic analysis to develop evidence-based policies that would enhance welfare and support those in need.”
Zhang did not need to look further than UC Irvine when choosing where to pursue graduate studies. She had built good relationships with several of UC Irvine’s economics faculty during her undergraduate years, and she knew that UC Irvine’s economics program ranks in the top 20 nationally with concentrations in monetary policy and central banking, public choice and transportation. Plus, she missed the campus.
Early in the doctoral program, Zhang attended a lecture with the Institute of Transportation Studies and became interested in how consumers decide to switch to electric vehicles, and whether they put too much value on purchase price without factoring in longer-term savings on fuel and maintenance. She spent six months collecting data for the project – a much bigger undertaking than she first imagined — and wrote her second-year paper on the topic.
Now, she is collaborating with faculty at UC Irvine and UC Berkeley on a project to better understand how the shift to EVs will impact highway infrastructure, which is largely funded by gas taxes. She is also examining the 2024 merger of Alaskan and Hawaiian Airlines to understand how it impacted travelers in ways hidden outside of ticket prices — like legroom and checked bag fees.
“These projects both show how consumers often don’t have direct access to the information they need in order to make the best decisions,” Zhang explains.
Her research has already garnered accolades. Her analysis of the airline merger recently won the 2024-25 Ken Small Award from the economics department. She also received the 2025 Otto W. Shaler Scholarship for international students and the Long US-China Institute’s graduate research grant.
“Her work on electric vehicle policies and airline merger analysis demonstrates not only methodological rigor but also a deep understanding of how economic research can address pressing societal challenges like sustainable transportation and market competition,” says Jiawei Chen, associate professor of economics, and Zhang’s thesis advisor. “I expect Cassie to become a leading voice in applied economics, particularly in areas where rigorous empirical analysis meets critical policy questions. Her background in education and social services, paired with her expertise in economics, positions her to bridge the gap between academic research and practical policy solutions that improve people’s lives.”
A ‘scholar-citizen’
Zhang’s commitment to supporting students remains as strong as ever. In addition to mentoring undergraduates as a teaching assistant, Zhang was selected for the competitive Diverse Educational Community and Doctoral Experience (DECADE) program and served as the DECADE representative for the economics department. In that role, she and peers organize lectures and luncheons to foster a more inclusive, supportive environment among graduate students and with faculty.
“What truly sets Cassie apart is her commitment to lifting others up, through both her dedication to supporting and mentoring fellow students and her focus on research that serves the public good,” says Chen. “She exemplifies the kind of scholar-citizen we hope to cultivate: intellectually rigorous, socially engaged, and deeply committed to using her expertise to make a positive impact.”
As she enters her final year in the doctoral program, Zhang is looking to the future. She plans to go on the job market for an academic position – the path taken by about half of UC Irvine’s economics graduate students. Recently, she was selected as a Division of Teaching Excellence & Innovation Graduate Scholar, and will be working with Santa Ana College instructors, gaining insight into the educational needs at the community college level.
“People say, ‘I want to make the world a better place,’ and I think education is an important tool to do that,” says Zhang. “When you receive education, you change your life. And when you use your education to help others, you change the world around you.”