Dr Le (Lyla) Zhang is an applied economist who works across multiple economic research methods. She designs laboratory and field experiments to uncover the behavioural drivers of decision-making, and uses econometric and quasi-experimental analysis of secondary data to identify causal mechanisms behind individuals’ and firms’ decisions.

Her research has been published in leading economics and management journals, including Games and Economic Behavior, Experimental Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Banking and Finance, Health Economics, Production and Operations Management, Tourism Management, and MIT Sloan Management Review.

Dr Zhang is Chair of the Women in Economics Network (NSW), Co-Director of the Macquarie Business School Experimental Economics Laboratory, and Director of Research Training in Economics. She is an Associate Editor of International Journal of Manpower, Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, and a Review Editor of Frontiers in Behavioral Economics.

She has received multiple research, teaching and leadership awards, including an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (2019–2022), finalist for the Macquarie University Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Education (2025), the MQBS Staff Excellence Award for Education Excellence – Future-Ready Graduates (2026), and MQBS Impact Awards (2022, 2024, 2025, 2026).

She is interested in supervising highly motivated MRes and PhD candidates.