Draft:Peng Zhou
Economist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Peng Zhou (/peŋ /dʒoʊ) or 周鹏, is a China-born economist based in the United Kingdom. He is Professor of Economics at Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, where he also serves as Dean of International and Director of several institutes[1]. He is a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales (FLSW)[2] and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)[3]. His main research interests include macroeconomics, innovation economics, and financial economics.
 | Review waiting, please be patient.
This may take 3 months or more, since drafts are reviewed in no specific order. There are 4,946 pending submissions waiting for review.
Where to get help
How to improve a draft
You can also browse Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles to find examples of Wikipedia's best writing on topics similar to your proposed article. Improving your odds of a speedy review To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags. Editor resources
Reviewer tools
|
Some or most of the links rely largely or entirely on a single source.
Where to get help
How to improve a draft
You can also browse Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles to find examples of Wikipedia's best writing on topics similar to your proposed article. Improving your odds of a speedy review To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags. Editor resources
This draft has been resubmitted and is currently awaiting re-review. |  |
Early Life and Education
Peng was born in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China. He studied at Peking University, where he obtained a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy and a dual Bachelor’s degree in Economics[1].
He later went to the United Kingdom and obtained a Master’s degree in Economics and Finance at the University of York[3]. After briefly working in Beijing as a project manager at a consultancy firm, he returned to the United Kingdom to pursue a doctoral degree in Economics at Cardiff University, funded by Professor Patrick Minford's Julian Hodge macroeconomics bursary[3]. His PhD thesis is: Microdata analysis of price setting behaviour and macrodata analysis of heterogeneous DSGE models[4], supervised by Professor Huw Dixon.
Academic Career
After obtaining his PhD, Peng first joined Cardiff Metropolitan University as a lecturer in economics and finance. He served as field chair of the economics group at Cardiff School of Management. At the same time, he supervised PhD candidates from the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport[3]. During this period, his research mainly focused on entrepreneurship[5][6] and macroeconomics[7].
Peng joined Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University as a senior lecturer in 2016, and he was later promoted to Professor of Economics in 2024[1]. In May 2025, he was appointed University Dean of International at Cardiff University, reporting to the Pro Vice-Chancellor, with responsibility for international affairs, including Transnational Education (TNE) and strategic partnerships. Peng has also held several senior leadership roles at Cardiff University, including Director of the Cardiff Confucius Institute[8], Director of the China Centre for Business Research[9], and Director of the Welsh Institute for Research in Economics and Development[10].
Academic Notability
According to the largest citation database for economics, RePEc IDEAS, Peng was ranked among the top 5% of economists in the world as of 2026[11]. According to Google Scholar, his work has received 1418 citations with an h-index of 19 and i10-index of 31, as of April 2026[12].
Peng is a Co-Editor of Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies[13], the official journal of the Chinese Economic Association (UK/Europe). Peng was elected a board member of the Association in 2024[14].
In 2026, he was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales for his contributions to public policy in Wales and cultural exchange between Wales and China[2].
Research Interests
Professor Zhou’s research mainly addresses the following themes:
Technological innovation and the digital economy: He studies how emerging technologies, including blockchain[15][16], artificial intelligence[17], and big data[18], affect organizational behavior[19] and financial systems[20][21].
Green finance and sustainable development: He examines green bond markets[22] and green label choices and effects[23], offering practical insights for governments and firms seeking sustainable development pathways[24].
Economic policy and inclusive growth: He investigates fiscal decentralization[25][26], regional development[27], and public welfare, including wealth inequality[28][29], social mobility[30], housing[31][32], and healthcare[33][34]. This strand of research aims to inform inclusive policy design and the efficient allocation of public resources.
Teaching Philosophy
Professor Zhou has developed the Nonlinear Teaching Approach, which moves beyond the conventional linear lecture model by using spiral and multi-entry teaching designs to improve inclusiveness and learning effectiveness in large-class teaching. The approach has been examined through action research and he received Cardiff University’s Teaching Innovation Award[3]. This teaching approach was published in Education Sciences: “Make Lectures Match How We Learn: The Nonlinear Teaching Approach to Economics.”[35]
This nonlinear teaching approach has been explicitly applied to his textbook "Applied Economics in Globalised Economies: Problems and Policies"[36], co-authored with James Foreman-Peck and published by Palgrave Macmillan. The textbook is designed to connect economic theory with real-world policy issues in a multi-entry structure. The book introduces key issues in the global economy and shows how economic theory can be applied to real-world problems.
His earlier work, Advanced Modern Macroeconomics: Analysis and Application 《现代宏观经济学高级教程：分析与应用》（上海三联出版社，2014）, has become an important reference text for macroeconomics courses at leading Chinese universities[37].