A citizen of China, Zhang earned a B.S. in mathematics from Nankai University, China; a M.S. in economics from Tianjin University of Economics and Finance, China; and an M.S. and Ph.D. in applied economics and management (previously known as agricultural economics) from Cornell University in January 2000. Zhang joined IFPRI in 1998. He served as the president of the Chinese Economists Society (CES) from 2005 to 2006 and a member of the editorial board, International Journal of Applied Economics from 2004 to 2006.

• Rural urban linkage
• Governance and public goods provision
• Development strategies
• Diet change, demographic transition, and health

• China
• India
• East Asia
• South Asia

• Resource Abundance and Regional Development in China
  2008. Xiaobo Zhang, Li Xing, Shenggen Fan, and Xiaopeng Luo, Economics of Transition, 16(1): 7-29.
• Incremental Reform and Distortions in China’s Product and Factor Markets
  Xiaobo Zhang and Kong-yam Tan, World Bank Economic Review, 2007.
  http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhm002
  
  See DSG Discussion Paper No. 13.
• Spatial Inequality in Education and Health Care in China
  Xiaobo Zhang and Ravi Kanbur, China Economic Review, 16: 189-204 2005.
• Fifty Years of Regional Inequality in China: A Journey Through Central Planning, Reform and Openness.
  Ravi Kanbur and Xiaobo Zhang. Review of Development Economics, 9(1): 87-106, January 2005.
• Local Governance and Public Goods Provision in Rural China
  Xiaobo Zhang, Shenggen Fan, Linxiu Zhang, and Jikun Huang, Journal of Public Economics, 2857-2871, 2004.
• How Productive Is Infrastructure? New Approach and Evidence from Rural India
  Xiabo Zhang and Shenggen Fan, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 86(2) (May 2004): 492-501. 2004.
• Public Investment and Regional Inequality in rural China
  Xiaobo Zhang and Shenggen Fan, Agricultural Economics, 30(2): 89-100, 2004.
  EPTD Discussion Paper No. 71: (PDF 86K)
• Growth and Poverty Effects of Public Investments in Rural China
  Shenggen Fan, Linxiu Zhang, and Xiabo Zhang, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 52 (2) (January 2004): 395-422. 2004.
• How Does FDI Affect Regional Inequality within a Developing Country? Evidence from China
  Xiaobo Zhang and Kevin H. Zhang, Journal of Development Studies, 39 (4): 47-67, April 2003.
• Which Regional Inequality: The Evolution of Rural-Urban or Coast-Inland Inequality in China?
  1999. Ravi Kanbur and Xiaobo Zhang, Journal of Comparative Economics, 27: 686-701, December 1999.