Research
Research Areas
Financial Stability: Regulation, Economic Incentives, Intermediary and Household Behaviors
Published and Accepted Papers
Size-Based Regulation and Bank Fragility: Evidence from the Wells Fargo Asset Cap
(with Siddharth Vij, updated in September 2025)
Review of Financial Studies, conditionally accepted.
Paper | BibTeX
Post-GFC heightened regulation on large banks contributed to the rise in fragility of smaller banks revealed by the 2023 regional bank crisis.
Non-technical summary: Twitter Thread
Media coverage: Reuters | The Charlotte Observer | Yahoo! Finance USA | Insurance News Net | The Herald | U.S. News & World Report
Supporting Seniors: How Low-Income Elderly Individuals Respond to a Retirement Support Program
(with Sumit Agarwal, Wenlan Qian, and Bernard Yeung)
Management Science, accepted for publication.
Working Paper (with Internet Appendix) | BibTeX
The Silver Support Scheme, a means-tested elderly support program in Singapore, leads to beneficial additional spending and no strategic behaviors.
Reducing Racial Disparities in Consumer Credit: Evidence from Anonymous Loan Applications
(with Poorya Kabir)
Management Science, article in advance online publication.
MS Article in Advance | Working Paper (with Internet Appendix) | BibTeX
Anonymous loan applications reduce racial disparities in access to credit by increasing lender reliance on objective credit risk measures.
Non-technical summary: World Bank All About Finance Blog
Nonperforming Loan Disposals Without Resolution
(with Ben Charoenwong and Meng Miao)
Management Science, 2025.
MS Article | Working Paper (with Internet Appendix) | BibTeX
Banks conceal non-performing loans from regulators by devising transfers to designated resolution specialists and yet remaining exposed to the hidden risks.
Replaces “Hidden Non-Performing Loans in China”
Non-technical summaries: World Bank All About Finance Blog | ABFER Research Digest | Twitter Thread
Media coverage: The Economist (1, 2) | The Indian Express | Epsilon Theory
Policy mention: Cabinet Office of Japan’s 2023 II World Economic Trends report
Digital Payments and Consumption: Evidence from the 2016 Demonetization in India
(with Sumit Agarwal, Pulak Ghosh, and Jing Li)
Review of Financial Studies, 2024.
RFS Open Access Article | Internet Appendix | BibTeX
Digital payments increase consumer spending due to subdued endowment effects.
Policy mention: IMF Fintech Note 2025/004
Transient Customer Response to Data Breaches of Their Information
(with Sumit Agarwal, Pulak Ghosh, and Yunqi Zhang)
Management Science, 2024.
MS Article | Working Paper (with Internet Appendix) | BibTeX
Consumers react modestly to multiple data breaches we examined, implying that the perceived benefit of convenience overweighs the cost of privacy leakages.
Replaces “Privacy versus Convenience: Customer Response to Data Breaches of Their Information”
Non-technical summary: Twitter Thread
Measuring the probability of a financial crisis
(with Robert F. Engle)
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019.
PNAS Open Access Article | Appendix | Data & Code | BibTeX
We highlight the global externality in the origins of financial crises.
Replaces “How Much SRISK Is Too Much”
Media coverage: Quartz | Science/AAAS | Long Room
Selected Working Papers and Works in Progress
Do Saving Tax Incentives Work? Evidence from Home Equity Accumulation and Consumption Responses
(with Sumit Agarwal, Souphala Chomsisengphet, Pulak Ghosh, Changcheng Song, and Man Zhang, updated in November 2025)
Paper | BibTeX
Saving tax incentives increase net private savings by inducing households to cut consumption to fund voluntary savings.
Immigration and Home Ownership
(with Poorya Kabir, draft available upon request)
Immigration-driven housing demand reduces home ownership among US-born households, particularly in supply-constrained regions and among younger adults.
Bailout, Borrowing, and Bust: How Stock Rescue Amplified China’s Real Estate Meltdown
(with Lingtian Bu and Meng Miao, draft available upon request)
Government stock market support inadvertently fueled speculative real estate expansion by state-backed firms, amplifying China’s housing boom-bust cycle.
Institutional Reform, Collusion, and the Unraveling of China’s Initial Public Offerings
(with Meng Miao and Xiao Yan, draft available upon request)
Strategic bidding coordination among institutional investors undermined China’s IPO pricing reform, with broker-fund networks facilitating collusion.
Resting Working Paper
The Economics of Shadow Banking: Lessons from Surrogate Intermediaries in China
(updated March 2018)
Paper
Entrusted loans made by Chinese listed firms to other firms fill the regulation-induced gap in bank loan supply.