Jian Zou is a tenure-track assistant professor at Xiamen University (China), jointly appointed by the School of Economics and the Wang Yanan Institute for Studies in Economics. Before joining XMU, he was a Postdoctoral Associate in Labor Economics at the ILR School of Cornell University. He is an applied microeconomist specializing in labor economics, economics of education, and public economics, with a strong focus on policy-relevant research. His research methodologically integrates the examination of large administrative and survey datasets with sharp causal designs that build on (quasi-)random assignment and policy variation. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

He joined IZA as a Research Affiliate in March 2026.