Pengju Zhang, PhD
Dr. Pengju Zhang is an associate professor in the School of Public Affairs and Administration (SPAA) at Rutgers University–Newark. He specializes in state and local public finance, local government studies, education finance and policy, and quantitative analysis. His work has appeared in many peer-reviewed journals, including National Tax Journal, International Tax and Public Finance, Education Finance and Policy, Public Finance Review, Public Budgeting and Finance, American Review of Public Administration, The Journal of Regional Science, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, etc. Currently, he serves as editor of Local Government Studies, the leading journal for the study of local politics, policy, public administration and management and governance. He helped establish the annual Northeastern Public Finance and Budgeting Workshop, a one-day regional event for students and scholars specializing in public finance, financial management, and budgeting, with the inaugural workshop being held in 2024 at Rutgers SPAA. For the 2024-2025 academic year, he served as a Samuels Public Affairs Fellow, and in 2025 he received the SPAA Faculty Service Award for outstanding service to the school's students and faculty and the greater SPAA community. Dr. Zhang primarily teaches Economics for Public Administration, Public Budgeting and Finance, and Government Revenue Theory and Administration at Rutgers University.
Education
- PhD: Syracuse University, Public Administration and International Affairs
- MPA: Indiana University, Bloomington
- BA: Sun Yat-sen University, Political Science
Research Areas
- Education Finance and Policy
- Local Government Studies
- State and Local Public Finance