Research

Research Areas

Corporate Governance, FinTech, Financial Institutions, Hedge Funds

Education

  • Ph.D. in Economics, Columbia University, New York, 2013
  • M.A. in Statistics, Columbia University, New York, 2008
  • M.S. in Architecture and Urban Design, Columbia University, New York, 2005
  • Bachelor of Architecture, Tongji University, Shanghai, 2004

Publications

“The Wisdom of Crowds in FinTech: Evidence from Initial Coin Offerings,” with Jongsub Lee and Donghwa Shin, Review of Corporate Finance Studies, forthcoming.

“Investor Ideology,” with Patrick Bolton, Enrichetta Ravina, and Howard Rosenthal, Journal of Financial Economics 137(2), 320-352, August 2020.

“The Long Rise and Quick Fall of Appraisal Arbitrage,” with Wei Jiang and Randall Thomas, Boston University Law Review 100(6), 2133-2177, December 2020.

“Seeking Out Non-Public Information: Sell-Side Analysts and the Freedom of Information Act,” with April Klein and Bobo Zhang, The Accounting Review 95(1), 233-257, January 2020.

“Influencing Control: Jawboning in Risk Arbitrage,” with Wei Jiang and Danqing Mei, Journal of Finance 73(6), 2635-2675, December 2018.

  • Best Paper Award at the FMA Consortium on Activist Investors, Corporate Governance and Hedge Funds, 2015
  • Finalist, Crowell Memorial Prize, PanAgora Asset Management, 2016

“Outsourcing Corporate Governance: Conflicts of Interest Within the Proxy Advisory Industry,” Management Science 64(6), 2951-2971, June 2018.

“Appraisal: Shareholder Remedy or Litigation Arbitrage?” with Wei Jiang, Danqing Mei, and Randall Thomas, Journal of Law and Economics 59(3), 697-729, August 2016.

“Activist M&A Arbitrage in Acquirers,” with Wei Jiang and Danqing Mei (2018), Finance Research Letters 29, 156-161, June 2019.

“The Value of Access to Rail Transit in a Congested City: Evidence from Housing Prices in Beijing,” Real Estate Economics 48(2), 556-598, Summer 2020.

Working Papers

“Contradictory Voting by ESG Funds,” with Lakshmi Naaraayanan and Kunal Sachdeva (2021).

“Power Grab: Activists, Short Sellers, and Disagreement,” with Pedro Saffi and Daheng Yang (2021).

“Municipal Finance During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” with Jing Lu (2020).

  • Presentations: Virtual Municipal Finance Workshop 2021, Midwest Finance Association

“Cryptocurrency Pump-and-Dump Schemes,” with Donghwa Shin and Baolian Wang (2019). Revise & Resubmit

“Picking Friends Before Picking (Proxy) Fights: How Mutual Fund Voting Shapes Proxy Contests,” with Alon Brav, Wei Jiang, and James Pinnington (2019), Columbia Business School Research Paper No. 18-16; ECGI Finance Working Paper No. 601/2019. Online Appendix

“The Benefits of Friendship in Hedge Fund Activism,” with Ellen He (2019). Revise & Resubmit

  • Presentations: 4th Conference on Recent Advances in Mutual and Hedge Fund Research (Humboldt & ESMT), EFA, 9th Annual Hedge Fund Research Conference, CEPR Annual Spring Symposium in Financial Economics (Imperial College), Consortium on Institutional Investing and Hedge Funds (Cambridge University), The Role of Hedge Funds and other Collective Investments in the Modern World (Manchester), FMA, FMA Europe
  • Coverage: Seeking Alpha

“Acquiring and Trading on Complex Information: How Hedge Funds Use the Freedom of Information Act,” with April Klein (2015). This paper was previously circulated under the title “Costs and Benefits of Acquiring Information: How Hedge Fund Managers Trade on the Freedom of Information Act.”

  • Presentations: EFA, American Law & Economics Association, Annual Hedge Fund Research Conference (Paris), EFMA, FMA
  • EFMA Conference Best Paper Award, 2015
  • Semi-finalist, FMA Conference Best Paper Award, 2015
  • Coverage: Barclay’s Insider Report

Fellowships and Honors

  • Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence on the MBA Program, Warwick Business School, 2015.
  • The Jensen Prize for Corporate Finance and Organizations, Journal of Financial Economics Best Paper Contest 2020, Second Place: “Investor Ideology.” 
  • The 2020 Aberdeen Standard Investments Finance Prize (ECGI Working Paper series): “Picking Friends Before Picking (Proxy) Fights: How Mutual Fund Voting Shapes Proxy Contests.”
  • The 2019 Aberdeen Standard Investments Finance Prize (ECGI Working Paper series): “Investor Ideology.” 
  • INQUIRE Europe Award (€10,000), “Power Grab: Activists, Short Sellers, and Disagreement,” 2018.
  • Best Paper Award, 2015 European Financial Management Association (EFMA): “Costs and Benefits of Acquiring Information: How Hedge Fund Managers Trade on the Freedom of Information Act.”
  • Best Paper Award, 2015 Consortium on Activist Investors, Corporate Governance and Hedge Funds: “Influencing Control: Jawboning in Risk Arbitrage.”
  • Finalist, 2016 Crowell Memorial Prize, PanAgora Asset Management: “Influencing Control: Jawboning in Risk Arbitrage.”
  • William Kinne Fellows Memorial Traveling Prize, Columbia University, 2005.

Other Publications

Book Review

Merger Masters: Tales of Arbitrage (2018) by Kate Welling and Mario Gabelli (GAMCO Investors, Inc.)

Selected Media Citations

Conference Committee Services

  • Member of the Program Committee for the Hogeg Blockchain Research Institute Conference, 2021
  • Member of the Program Committee for the inaugural Crypto and Blockchain Economics Research (CBER) Conference, 2021
  • Member of the Best Paper Award Review Committee for the 2020 FMA Conference
  • Member of the 2020 Midwest Finance Association Program Committee
  • Member of the Program Committee for the 2019 FMA Consortium on Factor Investing
  • Member of the 2018 Eastern Finance Association Program Committee
  • Member of the Program Committee for the 2018 FMA Consortium on Trading Strategies and Institutional Investing
  • Member of the 2017 EFA Program Committee
  • Member of the 2017 FMA Program Committee
  • Session chair, 2017 Shanghai Fintech Conference
  • Member of the Program Committee for the 2014 Frontiers of Finance Conference