Selected Research Papers

Labor Mobility and Loan Origination

Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, accepted, with Sumit Agarwal, Yupeng Lin, Zilong Zhang, GCREC Best Paper Awardlink.

Privacy versus Convenience: Digital Payment and Data Breaches

R&R at Management Science, with Sumit Agarwal, Pulak Ghosh, Tianyue Ruan. Georgetown Global Virtual Semiars on Fintech, link


How Does ETF Arbitrage Affect Corporate Decisions?

with Zhen Lai, Xiaoyu Zhang

China International Forum in Finance and Policy, Best Paper Award; Great Bay Area Finance Summit, Best Paper Award

We use a unique setting in China, which overcomes the problems in index reconstruction, to study how ETF arbitrage affects corporate decisions.


How Does the Equity Market Stabilize the Economy via Bank Lending

ASSA-AREUEA 2023, FMA 2022, CICF 2021, MFA 2021, CAFM 2020, Australasian Finance and Banking Conference 2019, SBFC 2019

Effects of Government Bail-out on Mortgage Modification

with Sumit Agarwal, Journal of Banking and FinanceVolume 93, August 2018, Pages 54-70, link

Mortgage servicers prefer foreclosure over modification when they are liquidity constrained. This paper shows how liquidity infusions affect debt renegotiations using TARP and mortgage modification. The findings have important policy implications for the renegotiations of distressed loans when liquidity enhancement and debt service management are provided by the same financial institutions.

How Does Working in a Finance Profession Affect Mortgage Delinquency?

with Sumit AgarwalSouphala ChomsisengphetJournal of Banking and FinanceVolume 78May 2017, Pages 1-13, Lead article (previously circulated with the title "How Does Financial literacy Affect Mortgage Default", CICF 2015), link

Financial professionals are less likely to default on their mortgage loans, and many alternative explanations are ruled out. We discuss explanations for these results, including financial literacy, network, and reputation concerns.

Alcohol Consumption and the Value of Community

with Xiaoyu ZhangReal Estate EconomicsForthcoming2024, link

After a liquor ban catalyzed by an unexpected riot in Singapore, housing price changes in the liquor control zones were weak, which implies that the utility and disutility of alcohol consumption almost cancel each other out. In contrast, housing prices increased for houses within 800m of but outside the liquor control zones.


Regulation Induced Digitalization

with Xiaoyu ZhangChina Economic Review, Volume 88, 2024, previously circulated with the title "Carbon Trade and Digitalization" link

The pilot program of carbon emission allowance trade in China increased firm digital transformation. This increase cannot be fully explained by firms' own innovation. The industry-level concentration of digitalization changed little.