Yao Zeng
Assistant Professor of Finance
Cynthia and Bennett Golub Faculty Scholar (2023-25)
The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania
CV (updated August 2024) | Google Scholar
I work on the intersection of asset pricing and corporate finance with a focus on financial intermediation, and received my Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 2016.
My current agenda explores how new technologies and non-bank entrants shape the landscape and evolution of money, banking, and payments, and the financial stability and macroeconomic implications.
A recent webinar (with slides) on Basel III Endgame and its implications on banks and financial markets, an op-ed on the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, and a blog post on mutual funds summarize my research and views on financial stability risks and how we can fight against them.
Working Papers
15. "The Making of an Alert Depositor: How Payment and Interest Drive Deposit Dynamics," with Xu Lu and Yang Song
Media Mentions: Knowledge@Wharton
14. "Payments, Reserves, and Financial Fragility," with Itay Goldstein and Ming Yang
13. "Stablecoin Runs and the Centralization of Arbitrage," with Yiming Ma and Anthony Lee Zhang
Media Mentions: Chicago Booth Review
Papers under Review/Revision
12. "Bank Debt, Mutual Fund Equity, and Swing Pricing in Liquidity Provision," with Yiming Ma and Kairong Xiao
Revise and Resubmit, Review of Financial Studies
Mentioned in the SEC's proposed rule on Open-End Fund Liquidity Risk Management Programs and Swing Pricing
Mentioned in the SEC's proposed rule on Money Market Fund Reforms
Media Mentions: Wharton Initiative on Financial Policy and Regulation
11. “Coordination and Fragility in Liquidity Provision,” with Ming Yang
Revise and Resubmit, Review of Financial Studies
10. “ETF Arbitrage under Liquidity Mismatch,” with Kevin Pan
Revise and Resubmit, Journal of Finance
Arthur Warga Award for the Best Paper in Fixed Income, SFS Finance Cavalcade (North America)
Finalist of the ECB Research Prize in memory of Ieke van den Burg
Mentioned by SEC Commissioner Robert J. Jackson, Jr. in his Statement on Proposed Rules Regarding Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)
Media Mentions: Bloomberg (Matt Levine's Money Stuff Column), ETF Stream (Interview), ETF Stream (2), Bloomberg (2), NBER Digest, Financial Times (1), Financial Times (2), Washington Post, DTCC, Alpha Architect, Absolut Research
9. “A Dynamic Theory of Mutual Fund Runs and Liquidity Management”
Revise and Resubmit, Review of Financial Studies, invited submission
First Prize for the Best Finance Theory Job Market Paper, Finance Theory Group
Trefftzs Award for the Best Student Paper, WFA
Cubist Systematic Strategies Ph.D. Candidate Award for Outstanding Research, WFA
Mentioned in the SEC's final rule on Money Market Fund Reforms
Mentioned in the SEC's proposed rule on Open-End Fund Liquidity Risk Management Programs and Swing Pricing
Mentioned in the SEC's proposed rule on Money Market Fund Reforms
Media Mentions: Bloomberg, WSJ, Risk.net, Money, Banking, and Financial Markets
Publications
8. "FinTech Lending and Cashless Payments," with Pulak Ghosh and Boris Vallee
Journal of Finance, forthcoming
Media Mentions: Knowledge@Wharton
7. "Steering a Ship in Illiquid Waters: Active Management of Passive Funds," with Naz Koont, Yiming Ma, and Lubos Pastor
Review of Financial Studies, forthcoming
Media Mentions: Financial Times (1), Financial Times (2), Barron's, Knowledge@Wharton, Chicago Booth Review, Becker Friedman Institute, ETF Stream, Liberty Street Economics
6. "Mutual Fund Liquidity Transformation and Reverse Flight to Liquidity," with Yiming Ma and Kairong Xiao
Review of Financial Studies, 35(10): 4674-711, October 2022.
Replicated for a sample of global funds in the IMF Financial Stability Report
Mentioned in the SEC's proposed rule on Open-End Fund Liquidity Risk Management Programs and Swing Pricing
Mentioned in the SEC's proposed rule on Money Market Fund Reforms
Mentioned in the Federal Reserve's November 2021 Financial Stability Report
Mentioned by New York Fed Executive Vice President Lorie K. Logan in her remarks on Treasury Market Liquidity and Early Lessons from the Pandemic Shock
Mentioned by the Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund (AFREF) in a Comment on Potential Money Market Fund Reform Measures in President’s Working Group Report
5. “Silence is Safest: Information Disclosure When the Audience's Preferences are Uncertain,” with Philip Bond
Journal of Financial Economics, 145(1): 178-93, July 2022.
Media Mentions: Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog
4. “Mutual Funds as Venture Capitalists? Evidence from Unicorns,” with Sergey Chernenko and Josh Lerner
Review of Financial Studies, 34(5): 2362-410, May 2021. Code to Download Data
Media Mentions: Reuters, Bloomberg (Matt Levine's Money Stuff Column), Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, Boston Globe, Citywire, MoFo Jumpstarter
3. “Marketplace Lending: A New Banking Paradigm?” with Boris Vallee
Review of Financial Studies, 32(5): 1939-82, May 2019. Replication Code and Data
Media Mentions: HBS Working Knowledge, PYMTS.com
2. “Financing Entrepreneurial Production: Security Design with Flexible Information Acquisition,” with Ming Yang
Review of Financial Studies, 32(3): 819-63, March 2019.
Editor's Choice (lead article)
1. “Multi-Agent Inference in Social Networks: A Finite Population Learning Approach,” with Jianqing Fan and Xin Tong
Journal of the American Statistical Association, 110, Theory and Methods: 149-58, April 2015.