Xiaomeng Lu is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, and an Associate Professor of finance (without tenure) at the International School of Finance, Fudan University. Prior to joining FISF in 2021, she was an Assistant Professor of finance at Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF), Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from Cornell University. She has a B.A. degree in Economics and a B.S. degree in Statistics from Peking University. Her research fields include empirical asset pricing, behavioral finance, FinTech, and household finance. She is also interested in topics related to the Chinese financial market.
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Publications
FinTech Platforms and Mutual Fund Distribution, with Claire Yurong Hong and Jun Pan, 2024, online, Management Science.
Abstract: We document a novel platform effect caused by the emergence of FinTech platforms in the intermediation of financial products. In China, platform distributions of mutual funds emerged in 2012 and grew quickly into a formidable presence. Utilizing the staggered entrance of funds onto platforms, we find a marked increase of performance-chasing, driven by the centralized information flow unique to FinTech platforms. This pattern is further confirmed using proprietary data from a top platform. Examining the platform impact on fund managers, we find that, incentivized by the amplified performance-chasing, fund managers increase risk taking to enhance their probability of getting onto the top ranking.
Disagreement Beta, with George Gao, Zhaogang Song, and Hongjun Yan, 2019, Journal of Monetary Economics, 107, pp.96-113.
Abstract: When two investors agree to disagree on market prospects and bet against each other, both expect to profit from their trades. Hence, an increase in disagreement leads to higher perceived trading profits and lower marginal utilities for both investors, so disagreement betas can affect cross-sectional asset returns. We construct a disagreement measure us- ing professional forecasts of U.S. macroeconomic fundamentals. Betas with respect to this disagreement factor positively explain cross-sectional returns of stocks, corporate bonds, mortgage-backed securities, and government securities. Further tests using portfolio-based test assets confirm the significant pricing power of the disagreement factor on top of in- fluential benchmark factors.
Tail Risk Concerns Everywhere, with George Gao and Zhaogang Song, 2019, Management Science, 65(7), pp.3111-3130.
Abstract: We showthat the beta with respect to an index of global ex ante tail risk concerns (GRIX), whichwe construct using out-of-the-money options on multiple global assets, negatively drives cross-sectional return variations across asset classes, including international equity indices, foreign currencies, and government bond futures. The pricing power of GRIX becomes stronger when more asset-class-level tail risk concerns are incorporated in the index construction. GRIX also dominates asset-class-level tail risk concerns in pricing assets within each asset class. These evidences imply that the pricing effect of tail risk concerns works predominantly as a global channel. The GRIX pricing effect is distinct from that of tail risk factors based on historical realizations, consistent with the interpretation that tail risk concerns likely reflect investors' ex ante subjective belief about tail risk.
Working papers
Financial Inclusion via FinTech: From Digital Payments to Platform Investments, with Claire Yurong Hong and Jun Pan, 2024, accepted at Management Science.
Abstract: We study household finance in the age of FinTech, where consumption, payments, and investments take place via all-in-one super-apps. We hypothesize that FinTech adoption can improve household risk-taking by breaking down the traditional physical and psychological barriers and enhance financial inclusion. Taking advantage of an individual-level FinTech dataset, we find that higher FinTech adoption, both at the individual-level and the county-level instrumented by distance-from-Hangzhou, results in higher participation and more risk-taking in mutual-fund investments. Moreover, individuals who are otherwise more constrained, those with higher risk tolerance or living in under-banked counties, stand to benefit more from the advent of FinTech.
Not All Capital Gains are Consumed Equally, with Guodong Chen, Yiqing Lu, and Michaela Pagel, 2025, working paper.
Abstract: This paper studies how attention to certain investments affects investors’ consumption out of capital gains. We leverage granular account-level data from a leading mobile payment platform that connects mutual fund investments with expenditure records. Investments that attract more attention, elicit a greater consumption response. We first show that the marginal propensity to consume (MPC) out of capital gains is larger for more recent investments and better-performing ones. We then exploit two quasi-experiments that introduce exogenous variations in what funds are displayed first. Overall, our results suggest that retail investor attention affects their consumption behavior.
Inflation, Default, and Corporate Bond Returns, with Yoshio Nozawa, and Zhaogang Song, 2025, working paper.
Abstract: We document key facts about the inflation risk exposure of corporate bond returns within standard portfolio frameworks over the period 2004-2022. First, while inflation betas of standard bond excess returns (relative to T-bills) are, on average, negative, inflation betas of credit excess returns---measured relative to duration-matched Treasuries---are positive across nearly all bonds. Second, the cross-sectional variation in the inflation beta of corporate bond returns is primarily driven by that of credit excess returns, with higher-default-risk bonds exhibiting more pronounced positive inflation betas. Third, inflation beta affects future bond returns positively in the cross-section, and this effect is driven entirely by credit excess returns. Finally, firms with higher bond inflation betas also have higher stock inflation betas.
Stock Market Attacks: Evidence from China, with Ziyang Geng, 2023, working paper.
Abstract: In existing behavioral finance literature on stock mispricing, rational investors largely play a passive role in tolerating mispricing due to limits to arbitrage. In this paper, we show that rational speculators sometimes proactively and intentionally create mispricing by driving up stock prices away from their fundamental values through synchronized attacks with explosive trading volumes. The inflated stock price is subsequently supported by new rounds of irrational buyers who are subject to extrapolation bias and by existing stockholders who are reluctant to sell due to the disposition effect. This paper develops a simple model to illustrate how bubble-creating attacks can succeed in equilibrium under certain limits-to-arbitrage conditions, and provides consistent empirical evidence in the Chinese stock market using investors' trading data from a large brokerage company in China.
Anomalies Abroad: Beyond Data Mining, 2018, with Robert F. Stambaugh and Yu Yuan, working paper.
Abstract: A pre-specified set of nine prominent U.S. equity return anomalies produce significant alphas in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the U.K. All of the anomalies are consistently significant across these five countries, whose developed stock markets afford the most extensive data. The anomalies remain significant even in a test that assumes their true alphas equal zero in the U.S. Consistent with the view that anomalies reflect mispricing, idiosyncratic volatility exhibits a strong negative relation to return among stocks that the anomalies collectively identify as overpriced, similar to results in the U.S.
Work-in-progress
Improving Investor Trading Habit via Digital Companion, with Jun Qian, Shang-Jin Wei, and Xingjian Zheng.
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