Hello!

I am a Research Fellow at Monash Centre for Financial Studies (MCFS). Prior to joining the Centre in August 2024, I obtained my PhD in Economics from Princeton University.

MCFS is one of the cross-disciplinary research centres within Monash Business School, Monash University. We execute policy and industry relevant research related to the financial sector.

My research areas include finance, macroeconomics and labour economics. My current projects investigate the role of banking organisations in the broader economy. I study why banks thrive or fail, how they respond to policies and regulations, and how their behaviour affects the wellbeing of individuals, households, and firms.

Working Papers

Banks' Geographic Expansion: New Location, Same Old Neighbours
Paper.

This paper examines how the spatial distribution of firms shapes banks' geographic expansion following deregulation. I first show that geographic overlap of operating areas between banks and firms is associated with persistent lending relationships. Then, I follow the development of the U.S. interstate banking deregulation, and find that banks are more likely to enter locations with higher shares of firms from their original neighborhood. The effects are stronger for banks focused on commercial & industrial loans, suggesting that pre-existing lending relationships facilitate entry. Moreover, these locations receive more credits from non-local banks and exhibit stronger employment growth.

The Financial Transmission of Trade Shocks: Household Credit Channel

Banks can transmit trade shocks across regions and from tradable to non-tradable sectors. This paper studies the response of US banks to the increase in import competition in the local economy due to China's accession to WTO. I find that exposed banks experience slower growth in deposits and contract their household lendings. Regions with greater reliance on lending from exposed banks have slower employment growth in the non-tradable sectors.

Capital Injection: Live Long and Wither

This paper studies the effects of government bailouts on banks' survival during the crisis. I find that US banks who received capital injections from the Treasury's Capital Purchase Program had a lower failure rate than the non-recipient. However, the rescuing effects dissipate shortly after the peak of the crisis. Meanwhile, capital recipients also had a substantially higher chance of being acquired, possibly due to political pressures and management inefficiency, resulting in a higher overall exit rate.

Data Collections

Acknowledgement: The following projects received financial supports from Washington Center for Equitable Growth and National Science Foundation (NSF Award 1949504) to Princeton Macrofinance Lab. Special thanks to Pallavi Nuka at JRCPPF for tremendous administrative support.

The Early County Business Pattern Files: 1946–1974
(with Fabian Eckert, Atif Mian, Karsten Müller, Rafael Schwalb and Amir Sufi)
NBER Working Paper No. 30578, October 2022.
Paper.

The County Business Pattern (CBP) files contain employment and establishment counts for detailed industry codes covering all counties in the United States. The contribution of this project is to digitize, clean, and prepare the CBP files during 1946–1974.

County Business Patterns 1946–2016: A User Manual
(with Fabian Eckert, Atif Mian, Karsten Müller, Rafael Schwalb and Amir Sufi)
Paper.

This user manual provides a detailed documentation of a database containing all CBP datasets published during the first 70 years since its inception. We digitized historical data from physical print, standardized all data format, and imputed undisclosed employment counts. We also document changes in the data structure, industry classifications and county boundaries.

Historical Data on Syndicated Loans 1973–1990
(with Atif Mian, Karsten Müller and Amir Sufi)
Paper.

We tabulate historical data on syndicated loans published on World Bank "Borrowing in International Capital Markets" and the Euromoney magazine. These new data significantly expand the currently available syndicated loan data, and are particularly relevant for research on international banking activities.

Teaching Experience

At Princeton University, I served as teaching asssitant for the following courses:

ECO362 Financial Investments

This course is an introduction to financial investments for students with no prior knowledge of finance. It provides an overview of financial markets and instruments including stocks, bonds, futures, options, and other derivatives. A theory of optimal asset allocation teaches the tradeoff between risk and return and the importance of diversification. A theory of asset pricing, developed under the assumption of no arbitrage, is used to evaluate trading strategies and the performance of mutual funds and other asset managers. Key concepts are illustrated through examples and homework exercises that use financial market data.

ECO363 Corporate Finance and Financial Institutions

This course examines the determinants of corporate financing decisions and the role of financial institutions in the wider context of the working of financial markets. Topics include capital budgeting, capital structure, risk management, and corporate governance. Additionally, the course introduces various methodologies for valuing individual projects, as well as entire companies.

FIN502 Corporate Finance and Financial Accounting

Major topics in modern corporate finance. We study investment policy (investment decision rules, project valuation, cost of capital) and financial policy (mostly capital structure decisions). Additional topics (private equity, bankruptcy and reorganization, merger and acquisitions) are covered if time permits.