Amy Yazhu Li
ABOUT
Welcome to my page! I am Amy (Yazhu) Li, an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. I completed my PhD in Finance at the Erasmus University Rotterdam & Tinbergen Institute, the Netherlands. My research interests include Empirical Corporate Finance, FinTech, and Sustainable Finance.
You can find my CV here.
Email: yazhuli@cuhk.edu.cn
RESEARCH
The corporate calendar and the timing of share repurchases and equity-based compensation
with Ingolf Dittmann, Stefan Obernberger and Jiaqi Zheng
• Featured as article by Harvard Law School Forum: https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2022/04/28/the-corporate-calendar-and-the-timing-of-share-repurchases-and-equity-compensation/
• Conferences: American Accounting Association (AAA) Annual Meeting 2022, SFS Cavalcade Asia-Pacific 2022, American Finance Association (AFA) Annual Meeting 2023, European Finance Association (EFA) Annual Meeting 2023
Abstract: This study examines whether the CEO uses share repurchases to sell her equity grants at inflated stock prices, a concern regularly voiced in politics and media. We document that the timing of buyback programs, like the timing of equity-based compensation, is largely determined by the corporate calendar through earnings announcement dates and blackout periods, inducing a spurious positive correlation between share repurchases and equity-based compensation. Accounting for the corporate calendar, share repurchases are no longer correlated with the granting and vesting of equity. The CEO is more likely to buy equity when the firm announces a buyback program and less likely to sell equity when the firm actually buys back shares. Equity compensation increases the CEO's propensity to launch a buyback program when it benefits long-term shareholder value. Our results suggest a novel channel of how equity-based compensation aligns the interests of shareholders with those of the CEO.
Actual Share Repurchases and Shareholder-Creditor Conflicts
Single author, first draft completed
• Presented at: Brown Bag Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Tinbergen Institute PhD seminars series, ERIM PhD seminar series
Ownership of Poison Bonds
• Work-in progress
Buyback motives: Evidence from open-market share repurchases in China
Single author
• Work-in-progress
TEACHING
Options and Futures (Bachelor course)
January 2024 – present
Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen
Financial Methods and Techniques (Bachelor course)
January 2021 – June 2023
Erasmus University Rotterdam, together with Rogier Quadvlieg and Marc Gabarro
Thesis Supervision
45 Bachelor Students
33 Master Students
September 2019 – June 2023
Thesis topics: ESG, Empirical Corporate Finance, Fintech, Corporate Governance