Background & experience
Resume/CV.
Raphael Zhang
Education
B.A. in Economics
University of California, Davis
Specialization: International Macro-Finance
Research interests
Macroeconomics; monetary policy; financial economics; international macroeconomics; artificial intelligence.
Research experience
Research Assistant · Economic Narratives in Political Speech Project
UC Davis Economics Department
Built Python scraping and OCR pipelines to curate political-speech text from around the world for economic narrative analysis and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and LLM workflows.
Research Assistant · Global Price Initiative Project
UC Davis Economics Department
Used machine learning to extract historical price data from newspapers, and labeled and validated data to support model improvement. Managed a large-scale database and analyzed economic trends.
Work experience
Student Assistant
California Department of Tax and Fee Administration
Conduct independent research on California’s cannabis market, using econometric models and administrative data to estimate tax effects and forecast tax revenue.
Support revenue estimates and policy recommendations concerning prediction markets, gasoline markets, and the potential tax-revenue effects of proposed ballot measures.
Financial Aid Information Specialist Assistant
UC Davis Financial Aid Office
Assisted families with financial aid applications, handled sensitive documents, and contributed to system testing to improve student service.
University service
Voting Member · Council on Student Affairs and Fees
Vice Chancellor Office
Review student fee proposals and provide feedback to university leadership to support transparent and accountable campus resource allocation.
Additional experience
National College Federal Reserve Challenge
Research on Federal Reserve interest rates, inflation, economic indicators, and market conditions to develop and present recommendations for the federal funds rate.
Sustainable Development Goal Education Program
United Nations & Association of Pacific Rim Universities · Remote / Malaysia
Collaborated in an international education program focused on intercultural communication, global citizenship, and team-based social innovation.
Tutor Leader
Meaningful Teens · Online, international
Led volunteer tutor teams and managed online school operations to expand educational access for under-resourced students.
Skills & languages
Programming and tools: Python, R, Stata, MATLAB, LaTeX.
Data and text analysis: Web scraping, OCR, data cleaning, LLM-assisted text analysis, and API use.
Software: Microsoft Office, Google Workspace; Codex and Claude Code.
Professional: Communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and conflict management.
Languages: English, Mandarin, Cantonese.