HAOTIAN ZHENG

... is an assistant professor at the School of Social Welfare, State University of New York at Stony Brook. He researches social policies aimed at improving Financial and Social Well-being through Financial Capability and Asset-building, focusing on low-income populations.

ABOUT

Give it a shot to pronounce my first name: haʊ tjen

Hello! I'm social policy researcher and an assistant professor at the School of Social Welfare, State University of New York Stony Brook. I study interventions and policies ranging from Children's Savings Account and Child Development Account to guaranteed income and Child Tax Credit. My work employs various quantitative methods, both experimental and observational, to understand whether and how policies are effective in improving financial and social well-being.

My research has appeared or is forthcoming in the Journal of Consumer Affairs, Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Journal of Social Policy, The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, and Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research. I have been part of multi-year research grants funded by the Ford Foundation, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, MasterCard Foundation, and other major funders in the field.

ACTIVITIES

[2025-11] Historical harm and contemporary wealth disparities study is accepted to the JERP.

[2025-11] Presented In Her Hands and financial well-being at 2025 APPAM Fall Conference.

[2025-09] Financial shocks and emergency savings policy brief released.

[2025-04] Successfully defended my PhD dissertation.

[2025-04] Co-authored BNPL and AFS study presented at 2025 ACCI Annual Conference.

WORKING STUDIES

Employment Characteristics, Emergency Savings, and Financial Shocks (with S. Roll and M. Despard)
Guaranteed Income and High Cost Financial Services Use (with S. Roll, L. Hamilton, G. Zhang, & L. Brugger)
Historical Racial Harm and Well-being (with J. Huang and M. Sherraden)
Income Volatility and Well-being (with S. Conroy, S. Roll and M. Despard)

I present here research projects that I am currently working on. Completed projects, manuscripts under consideration, technical reports, and presentations can be found in the Research page and my CV.