Xiaobing Zhao

At Johns Hopkins, Xiaobing Zhao is the Associate Program Director and a senior lecturer for the MS in Applied Economics program.

Before joining the applied economics program in July 2021, Zhao was the Franke Professor of Business and a tenured professor of economics in the W. A. Franke College of Business at Northern Arizona University. She had also served as the economics area coordinator and chaired the College Promotion and Tenure/Annual Review Committee.

Over her 16-year career in higher education at four previous universities, Zhao taught various in-person and online courses, including microeconomics, macroeconomics, quantitative methods, environmental economics, and natural resource and climate change economics, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Zhao has published multiple articles in journals such as Ecological Economics, Economics Letters, Ecological Modelling, and Journal of Banking and Finance. Her research applies economic theory and quantitative analysis (such as optimization and econometrics) to collaborative environmental and natural resource management strategies in acid mine drainage treatment, forest restoration, climate change mitigation and adaptation. Recent papers of hers focus on climate change economics to quantify the impacts of climate change on economic outcomes with a strong emphasis on providing results that can inform policy decisions. She has served as associate editor for the Journal of Environmental Management.

Zhao holds a Master of Agricultural and Resource Economics from West Virginia University and received a PhD in political economy from Nankai University, China in 1999, as well as a second PhD in environmental and natural resource economics from West Virginia University in 2004.