He is known for his advocacy of free markets and his ideas have been influenced by the Austrian School.

supervisors were James Mirrlees (1996 Nobel Laureate) and Donald Hay.

He was the first Chinese economist who proposed the "dual-track price system" (in 1984) and emerged as a strong voice in arguing for it as a mechanism of reform during the Moganshan Youth Conference.

He then moved to Peking University's Guanghua School of Management in September 1997.

[4] Zhang Weiying is the Sinar Mas Chair Professor of Economics at Peking University's National School of Development.