Research

Google Scholar Profile

Working Papers:

1.   Surviving the Fintech Disruption (with Yuehua Tang, Rachel Xiao, and Vincent Yao).  Winner of the AMTD FinTech Centre Prize, 2022 Asian Finance Association Conference. 

2. Trading Ahead of Barbarians' Arrival at the Gate: Insider Trading on Non-Inside Information (with Georgy Chabakauri and Vyacheslav Fos)

3. How Do Firms Withstand Global Economic Shocks:  Evidence from Within-Firm Responses (with Xiao Cen and Vycheslav Fos).

4.  A Race to Lead:  How Chinese Government Interventions Shape the US-China Production Competition (with Xiao Cen and Vyecheslav Fos)

5. The Real Effect of Sociopolitical Racial Animus: Mutual Fund Manager Performance During the AAPI Hate (with Vikas Agarwal, Yuchen Luo, and Hong Zou).

6. A Diverse View of Board Diversity (with Vyecheslav Fos and Huasheng Nie)

Published and Accepted Fully Peer-Reviewed Papers: 

39. From Man vs. Machine to Man + Machine:  The Art and AI of Stock Analyses (with Sean Cao, Junbo Wang, and Baozhong Yang), American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) Best Paper Prize in Investments and Asset Pricing 2022; China Financial Research Conference (CFRC) Best Paper Prize 2022; Annual Conference in Digital Economics Best Paper Prize 2022.  Journal of Financial Economics, forthcoming.

38.  Mapping US-China Technology Decoupling, Innovation, and Firm Performance (with Pengfei Han and Danqing Mei). Winner of XY Best Paper Award  at 2021 China International Conference of Finance (CICF). Management Science, forthcoming.

37. How to Talk when a Machine is Listening:  Corporate Disclosure in the Age of AI (with Sean Cao, Baozhong Yang, and Alan L. Zhang), Review of Financial Studies, 2023, 36(9), 3603-3642.  Winner of the AMTD FinTech Centre Prize, Best Paper Prize at the CAPANA research conference in 2021 . 

36.   Shareholder Monitoring Through Voting:  New Evidence from Proxy Contest (subsuming "Picking Friends Before Picking (Proxy) Fights: How Mutual Fund Voting Shapes Proxy Contests") (with Alon Brav, Tao Li and James Pennington), winner of the Aberdeen Standard Investments Best Paper Prize by European Corporate Governance Initiative (ECGI), 2020.  Review of Financial Studies, forthcoming.

35. Diversity Through Turnover: How to Overcome the Glacial Pace Toward Board Diversity? Journal of Law, Finance, and Accounting, 2023(7), 1-26, Lead Article.

34.  Dissemination, Publication, and Impact of Finance Research: When Novelty Meets Conventionality (with Rui Dai, Lawrence Donohue, Qingyi (Freda) Song Drechsler), Review of Finance, February 2023, 23(1), 79-141.

33. What Explains Differences in Finance Research Productivity During the Pandemic? (with Brad M. Barber, Adair Morse, Manju Puri, Heather Tookes, and Ingrid Werner). Journal of Finance, 2021, vol 76, 1655-1697. 

32. Mutual Fund Holdings of Credit Default Swaps: Liquidity, Yield, and Risk Taking (with Jitao Ou and Zhongyan Zhu), Journal of Finance, 2021, vol 76, 537-586.  Winner of the Outstanding Paper Award in Financial Institutions, Midwest Finance Association, 2016.

31.   Coco Issuance and Bank Fragility (with Stefan Avdjiev, Bilyana Bogdanova, Patrick Bolton and Anastasia V. Kartasheva), Journal of Financial Economics, 2020, vol 138(3), 592-613 (lead article).

30.    Dancing with the Activists (with Lucian Bebchuk, Alon Brav and Thomas Keusch), Journal of Financial Economics, Lead article, 2020, vol 137, 1-41.  Winner of the Best Paper Prize in the 2015 FMA Consortium on Activist Investors, Corporate Governance and Hedge Funds.

29.    Trading Against the Random Expiration of Private Information: A Natural Experiment (with Mohammadreza Bolandnazar, Robert J. Jackson, Jr. and Joshua Mitts), Journal of Finance, 2020, Vol 75, 5-44 (lead article).  Winner of the Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) Distinguished Paper Prize of Journal of Finance. 

28.    Influencing Control: Jawboning in Risk Arbitrage (with Tao Li and Danqing Mei), Journal of Finance, 2018, vol 73(6), 2635-2675.  Winner of the Best Paper Prize in the 2015 FMA Consortium on Activist Investors, Corporate Governance and Hedge Funds.

27.    How Does Hedge Fund Activism Reshape Corporate Innovation? (with Alon Brav, Song Ma and Xuan Tian), Journal of Financial Economics, 2018, vol. 130, 237-264. Winner of the Jensen Prize for Corporate Finance and Organizations, Journal of Financial Economics best paper contest, First Prize, 2018.  Winner of The Best Paper Award from John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, 2016. The IRRC Institute Research Award, Honorable Mention, 2015.  

26.    Have Instrumental Variables Brought Us Closer to Truth?  Review of Corporate Finance Studies, 2017, vol. 6 (2), 127-140. Winner of The Best Paper Award of Review of Corporate Finance Studies.

25.    Appraisal: Shareholder Remedy or Litigation Arbitrage? (with Tao Li, Danqing Mei and Randall Thomas), Journal of Law and Economics, 2016, vol. 59, 697-729.

24.    Reputation Concerns of Independent Directors:  Evidence from Individual Director Voting (with Hualin Wan and Shan Zhao), Review of Financial Studies, 2016, vol. 29(3), 655-696.  Winner of the Best Paper Prize in Corporate Finance, The Chinese Finance Association (TCFA), 2014.

23.    Out-of-the-Money CEOs:  Private Control Premium and Option Exercise by CEOs (with Vyacheslav Fos), Review of Financial Studies, 2016, vol. 29(6), 1549-1585.  Winner of the 7th Annual Academic Conference on Corporate Governance (at Drexel University's LeBow College of Business) Best Paper Award, 2014. 

22.    Feedback Effects, Asymmetric Trading, and the Limits of Arbitrage (with Alex Edmans and Itay Goldstein), American Economic Review, 2015, 105(12): 3766-3797.

21.    The Real Effects of Hedge Fund Activism (with Alon Brav and Hyunseob Kim), Review of Financial Studies, October 2015, 28: 2723-2769.  Lead article.  Winner of The Michael J. Brennan Best Paper Award, Review of Financial Studies, 2015.

20.    Securitization and Loan Performance: A Contrast of Ex Ante and Ex Post Relations in the Mortgage Market (with Ashlyn Nelson and Edward Vytlacil), Review of Financial Studies, 2014, vol. 27(2), 454-483.

19.    Liar’s Loan? – Effects of Origination channel and Information Falsification on Mortgage Loan Delinquency (with Ashlyn Nelson and Edward Vytlacil), Review of Economics and Statistics, 2014. Vol 96(1), 1-18. Lead article.  Winner of the Western Finance Association Annual Meeting Analysis Group Award for the Best Paper on Financial Institutions and Markets, 2010.

18.    Pre-Disclosure Accumulations by Activist Investors: Evidence and Policy (with Lucian Bebchuk, Alon Brav and Robert Jackson), Journal of Corporate Law, 2013, vol. 39.

17.    Inferring Reporting Biases in Hedge Fund Databases from Hedge Fund Equity Holdings (with Vikas Agarwal and Vyacheslav Fos), Management Science, 2013, vol. 59(6), 1271-1289.

16.    Uncovering Hedge Fund Skill from the Portfolio Holdings They Hide (with Vikas Agarwal, Yuehua Tang and Baozhong Yang), Journal of Finance, 2013, vol 68(2), 739-783.  Winner of Chicago Quantitative Alliance (CQA) Annual Academic Competition Best Paper Award, 3rd Place, 2010.

15.    The Real Effects of Financial Markets: The Impact of Prices on Takeovers (with Alex Edmans and Itay Goldstein), Journal of Finance, 2012, vol. 67(3), 933-972. Appendix.  Winner of the Terker Family Prize in Investment research, the Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research, 2009.

14.    Hedge Funds and Chapter 11 (with Kai Li and Wei Wang), Journal of Finance, 2012, vol. 67(3), 513-560.

13.    When Shareholders are Creditors: Effects of Simultaneous Holding of Debt and Equity by Noncommercial-Banking Institutions (with Kai Li and Pei Shao), Review of Financial Studies, 2010, vol. 23(10), 3595-3637.

12.    Payoff Complementarities and Financial Fragility: Evidence from Mutual Fund Outflows (with Qi Chen and Itay Goldstein), Journal of Financial Economics, 2010, vol. 97, 239-262.

11.    Activist Arbitrage: A Study of Open-Ending Attempts of Closed-End Funds (with Michael Bradley, Alon Brav and Itay Goldstein), Journal of Financial Economics, 2010, vol. 95 (1), 1-19. Lead article.

10.    Returns to Hedge Fund Activism (with Alon Brav, Frank Partnoy and Randall Thomas), Financial Analyst Journal, 2008, vol 64, 45-61.

9.    Directors’ Ownership in the U.S. Mutual Fund Industry (with Qi Chen and Itay Goldstein), Journal of Finance, 2008, vol 63(5), 2629-2677.

8.    Hedge Fund Activism, Corporate Governance, and Firm Performance (with Alon Brav, Frank Partnoy and Randall Thomas), Journal of Finance, 2008, vol. 63 (4), 1729-1775, finalist for the Brattle Award, and ranked among the “Top 10 most-cited articles from Journal of Finance” by Scientific Direct in 2009.  Winner of The Roger F. Murray Best Paper Award by the Q Group, 2nd Place, 2007.  Winner of The Institute for Quantitative Investment Research (INQUIRE UK) Annual Best Paper Prize, 2007.  Winner of Chicago Quantitative Alliance (CQA) Annual Academic Competition Best Paper Award, 2nd Place, 2007.

7.    Defined Contribution Pension Plans: Determinants of Participation and Contribution Rates (with Gur Huberman and Sheena Iyengar), Journal of Financial Services Research, 2007, vol. 31(1), 1-32. Lead article.

6.    Price Informativeness and Investment Sensitivity to Stock Prices (with Qi Chen and Itay Goldstein), Review of Financial Studies, 2007, vol. 20 (3), 619-650.

5.    Offering vs. Choices in 401(k) Plans: Equity Exposure and Number of Funds (with Gur Huberman), Journal of Finance, 2006, vol. XLI(2), 763-801, winner of the Journal of Finance Smith-Breeden Distinguished Paper Prize, 2006.

4.    Analysts’ Weighting of Private and Public Information (with Qi Chen), Review of Financial Studies, 2006, vol. 19(1), 319-355.

3.    A Nonparametric Approach to Measuring and Testing Curvature (with Jason Abrevaya), Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 2005, vol. 23(1), 1-19. Lead article.

2.    Investor Learning about Analyst Predictive Ability (with Qi Chen and Jennifer Francis), Journal of Accounting and Economics, 2005, vol. 39(1), 3-24. Lead article.

1.    A Nonparametric Test of Market Timing,  Journal of Empirical Finance, 2003, vol. 10(4), pp 399 – 425. Lead article.            

Law review publications

3.   The Long Rise and Quick Fall of Appraisal Arbitrage (with Tao Li and Randall Thomas), Boston University Law Review, December 2020, vol 100(6).

2.      Will Tenure Voting Give Corporate Managers Lifetime Tenure (with Paul H. Edelman and Randall Thomas), Taxes Law Review, 2019, vol. 97, 991-1029.

1.   The Long-Term Effects of Hedge Fund Activism (with Lucian Bebchuk and Alon Brav), Columbia Law Review, June 2015.  One of the “Top 10 Corporate and Securities Articles of 2015” (out of all articles indexed in legal journals during 2015) by Thomson Reuters Corporate Practice Commentator.

Other academic publications ("lightly" reviewed)

10. The Credit Suisse CoCo Wipeout:  Facts, Misperceptions, and Lessons from Financial Regulation, with Patrick Bolton and Anastasia V. Kartasheva, Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, forthcoming. 

9. Governance by Persuasion: Hedge Fund Activism and Market-Based Shareholder Influence (with Alon Brav and Rongchen Li), 2022.  Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance. 

8.  Activist Arbitrage in M&A Acquirers (with Tao Li and Danqing Mei), Finance Research Letters, 2019, vol 29, 156-161.

7.    To FinTech and Beyond (with Itay Golstein and G. Andrew Karolyi), Review of Financial Studies, 2019, vol 32 (5), 1647 - 1661.  Editorial. 

6.    Who Are the Short-Termists? Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, lead article, 2018, vol 30(4), 1-8.  

5.    Recent Advances in Research on Hedge Fund Activism:  Value Creation and Identification (with Alon Brav and Hyunseob Kim), Annual Review of Financial Economics, vol. 7, December 2015.

4.   What happens "before the birth" and "after the death" of a hedge fund? (with Vikas Agarwal and Vyeacheslav Fos), Bankers, Markets & Investors, March-April, 2014.  

3. Delinquency Model Predictive Power among Low-Documentation loans (with Ashlyn Nelson and Edward Vytlacil), Economic Letters, 2013, vol. 120, 171-173.

2.  Hedge Fund Activism: A Review (with Alon Brav and Hyunseob Kim), Foundations and Trends in Finance, 2010, vol. 4(3), 1-66.

1. Positive Hurdle Rates without Asymmetric Information (with Qi Chen), Financial Research Letters, March 2004, 1(2), 106-112.

Book on Analytics for Corporate Finance and Accounting:  Data Structures and Applied AI