Education

INSEAD, France, 2014–2020

PhD in Finance

University of Oxford, United Kingdom, 2013–2014

MSc in Financial Economics

University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom, 2010–2013

MA in Accountancy-Economics (Undergraduate degree with first class honours)

Working Papers

1. To Fire or Not to Fire? The Role of Job Security in Asset Management

- Presented at: University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, University of Maryland, Baruch College, University of Arkansas, University of Connecticut, Northern Finance Association Conference 2019; LBS Trans-Atlantic Doctoral Conference 2019; Brown Bag at Amsterdam Business School 2019; Brown Bag at INSEAD 2019; Workshop at Tsinghua PBC School of Finance 2019

ABSTRACT: Does job security affect employees’ incentives and performance, and if so, in which direction? I study the causal effect of job security in the setting of asset management and exploit a novel quasi-natural experiment: When an asset management firm’s external subcontractor is involved in regulatory misconduct, the firm increases its reliance on its internal funds and becomes less likely to terminate its internal fund managers, resulting in exogenously increased job security for fund managers inside the firm. Using a difference-in-differences approach, I find that fund managers experiencing increased job security deliver lower performance, especially those who care less about their reputation in the labor market. Furthermore, I show that the firm provides higher pay-for-performance as an imperfect substitute to incentivize employees when internal job security exogenously increases. Overall, my results suggest that higher job security disincentivizes employees and can negatively affect productivity.

2. Strategic Complementarities in Monitoring: The Bright Side of Benchmarking

- Award: 30^th AFBC PhD Forum Best Paper First Prize

- Presented at: Financial Management Association Conference 2018; China International Conference in Finance (CICF) 2018; 30^th Australasian Finance and Banking Conference (AFBC) and PhD Forum 2017; 6^th Wharton–INSEAD PhD Consortium 2017; Brown Bag at INSEAD 2017

ABSTRACT: In the mutual fund industry, investment styles act as benchmarks: each fund is required to invest in accordance to its style and their performance is benchmarked against other same-style funds. This paper examines how benchmarking affects the interactions between same-style funds in their monitoring decisions regarding portfolio companies. By scrutinizing the actual voting behavior of mutual funds and exploiting exogenous fire sales and purchases as instruments, I find that incentives of an individual fund to monitor a portfolio company increase with the presence of other same-style funds as shareholders in the company and increase with the holdings of other same-style funds. The results support the existence of strategic complementarities among same-style funds in monitoring. Consequently, companies that are subject to higher strategic complementarities among same-style funds receive more monitoring and make better M&A decisions. Overall, my findings shed light on a bright side of benchmarking—belonging to a same style can act as a coordination device and help mutual funds overcome the free-rider problem, contributing to governance in their portfolio companies.

3. Information Specialization, Strategic Complementarity, and Market Efficiency: Evidence from Institutional Trading

- With Massimo Massa and Hong Zhang

- Presented at: European Finance Association Conference 2022

ABSTRACT: This paper explores how institutional investors process multidimensional firm-level information and how market efficiency is affected accordingly. We find that more informed investors process information in fewer news categories instead of simultaneously deciphering all dimensions of information. This information specialization, however, hampers market efficiency through two channels. First, inattention among even a small fraction of informed investors may impede information dissemination in the news categories in which they are specialized. Second, other news categories may be negatively affected due to strategic complementarity. Our results suggest that segmented multidimensional firm-specific information may fundamentally shape investor behavior and market efficiency.

Conference Discussions

1. “Media-driven Comovement: Evidence from China” by Yi Li, Dehua Shen and Wei Zhang

China International Conference in Finance (CICF), Guangzhou, 2019

2. “Excess Volatility from Increasing Overreaction” by Daniele d’Arienzo

LBS Trans-Atlantic Doctoral Conference, London, 2019

3. “Colors, Emotions, and the Auction Value of Paintings” by Marshall (Xiaoyin) Ma, Charles N. Noussair, and Luc Renneboog

SFS Cavalcade Asia-Pacific, Singapore, 2018

4. “Risk Tolerance, Interest Rates, and Fund Flow Dynamics” by Woon Sau Leung and Zhongyan Zhu

Financial Management Association Conference, San Diego, 2018

5. “Watching the Wolves: Unveiling the Moderating Role of Corporate Governance on CEO Power” by Mark Humphery-Jenner, Emdad Islam, Lubna Rahman and Jo-Ann Suchard

30^th Australasian Finance and Banking Conference, Sydney, 2017

Teaching Experience

Undergraduate Course Instructor, Baruch College

1. FIN3610 Corporate Finance, 2021-Present

MBA Finance Core Course Tutorial Instructor, INSEAD

1. Financial Markets and Valuation, 2017-2018

2. Corporate Finance Policy (Co-instructor), 2016-2017

3. Financial Markets and Valuation, 2016-2017

4. Financial Markets and Valuation, 2015-2016

Fellowships, Awards and Honours

1. 30^th AFBC PhD Forum Best Paper First Prize, 2017

2. AFA Student Travel Grant, 2017

3. INSEAD PhD Scholarship, 2014–2019

4. Davidson Prize, University of Aberdeen , 2013

- Awarded to the most distinguished graduate majoring in Accountancy

5. University of Aberdeen Business Ideas Competition Winner, 2012

6. Deloitte Award for Excellence in Finance, 2011

7. Ernst & Young Prize in Accountancy Juniour Honours, 2011

8. Hong Kong Fong Bursary Award, University of Aberdeen, 2011–2013