Wendong Zhang

Biography

Wendong Zhang is an associate professor in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, part of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. An agricultural and environmental economist, he studies U.S. farmland markets, Chinese agriculture and the connections between agriculture and the environment.

Zhang’s recent research combines causal inference methods with novel data sources — including satellite imagery, cellphone mobility data and participatory science biodiversity data — to inform land, conservation and trade policy.

His work highlights how emerging data tools can deepen understanding of agricultural systems and environmental change, contributing to areas such as land use policy and conservation economics.

He serves as academic vice president of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, co editor for feature articles at Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy and associate editor of the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. He previously served as associate editor of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics (AJAE) from 2020 to 2023. Zhang is also a faculty fellow at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability and has been a visiting researcher at the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research and National Taiwan University.

His research has been published in journals including AJAE, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Nature Communications, National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Economic Geography and Food Policy. His work has been covered by more than 200 media outlets worldwide, including The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Fortune, Bloomberg, Reuters, CGTV and NPR.

Before joining Cornell, Zhang was a tenured associate professor of economics at Iowa State University. He earned his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in 2015 and his B.S. from Fudan University in 2009.

Education

PhD Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics, Ohio State University, Columbus, 2015
MA Economics, Ohio State University, Columbus, 2012
BS Environmental Science, Fudan University, 2009

Research

• Li, Ding; Li, Ziran; Shao, Shuai; Yu, Chenxi; Zhang, Wendong. "Impact of water quality regulation on the agricultural economy in China"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. 139 (2026): e103380
• Qu, Xiaorui; Lu, Qinan; Li, Minghao; Zhang, Wendong. "Broadband internet speed upgrades and the farmland market: A shift-share instrumental variable approach"American Journal of Agricultural Economics. 108.2 (2026): 566-598
• Cheng, Nieyan; Li, Minghao; Liu, Pengfei; Luo, Qianfeng; Tang, Chuan; Zhang, Wendong. "Pipeline incidents and property values"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. 127 (2024): e103041
• Li, Minghao; He, Xi; Zhang, Wendong; Qu, Shuyang; Rodriguez, Lulu; Gbeda, James. "Farmers' reactions to the US–China trade war: Perceptions versus behaviors"Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. 2.3 (2023): 386-401
• Howard, Gregory; Zhang, Wendong; Valcu-Lisman, Adriana; Gassman, Philip. "Evaluating the tradeoff between cost effectiveness and participation in agricultural conservation programs"American Journal of Agricultural Economics. 106.2 (2024): 712-738
• Liu, Qing; Maule, Beatrice; Zhang, Wendong. "Of women and land: How gender affects successions and transfers of Iowa farms"Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. 45.4 (2023): 2255-2280
• He, Xi; Balistreri, Edward; Kim, Gyu Hyun; Zhang, Wendong. "A general equilibrium assessment of COVID-19's labor productivity impacts on China's regional economies"Journal of Productivity Analysis. 58 (2022): 129-150
• Mei, Yingdan; Gao, Li; Zhang, Wendong; Yang, Feng-An. "Do homeowners benefit when coal-fired power plants switch to natural gas? Evidence from Beijing, China"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. 110 (2021): 102566
• Xiong, Tao; Zhang, Wendong; Chen, Chen-Ti. "A Fortune From Misfortune: Evidence from Hog Firms' Stock Price Responses to China's African Swine Fever Outbreaks"Food Policy. 105 (2021): 102150
• Shao, Yongtong; Xiong, Tao; Li, Minghao; Hayes, Dermot; Zhang, Wendong; Xie, Wei. "China's Missing Pigs: Correcting China's Hog Inventory Data Using a Machine Learning Approach"American Journal of Agricultural Economics. 103.3 (2021): 1082-1098

Awards

• Young Professional Achievement Award (2022) College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Alumni Society, the Ohio State University
• Distinguished Extension/Outreach Program Award, Individual: Less than Ten Years' Experience (2021) Agricultural & Applied Economics Association
• Advisor of Winner of the AAEA Best Undergraduate Student Paper Competition (2021) Agricultural & Applied Economics Association
• Early Achievement Award in Extension and Outreach (2021) Iowa State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
• Bruce Gardner Memorial Prize for Applied Policy Analysis Award (2019) Agricultural & Applied Economics Association