Jesse Zexi Wang 

Education

2010 --- 2013                 PhD in Finance, University of Zurich and Swiss Finance Institute

2007 --- 2010                 Research Scholar in Finance, Norwegian School of Economics

2005 --- 2007                 Master in Applied Mathematics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Working Papers

The Effect of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on Payout Policies, with Ana Albuquerque, Benjamin Bennett, and Petro Lisowsky

• Revise & Resubmit at  Journal of Accounting Research

• Seminar at Bocconi University, Erasmus University,  University of Colorado, University Carlos III (Madrid), Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance; 

• Current Research in Taxation  Conference (Portugal) 2024, European Accounting Association 2025 (Rome), the 14th EIASM Conference on Current Research in Taxation, and the 18th Luso-Brazilian Finance Conference 

How Executive Compensation Changes In Response to Personal Income Tax Shocks, with Benjamin Bennett and Jeffrey Coles

• NBER Economics of Executive Compensation Research Conference, Fall 2025 (Recording 15:00--1:05:00); AFA 2021 Chicago, FMA 2021 Denver, Drexel Corporate Governance Symposium 2022

• Tilburg University, Penn State University, Lafayette College, BELM seminar series, University of Birmingham, Univ of North Texas, UC-Riverside, Stevens Institute of Technology 

From Public Records to the Private Sector: The Corporate Effects of State FOIA Reforms, with Benjamin Bennett, John Bizjak, and Swami Kalpathy

• Santiago Finance Workshop; Seminars at University of Bern, University of Cambridge (CJBS)

What are the Costs of Weakening Shareholder Primacy? Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment, with  Benjamin Bennett and René M. Stulz

• Featured at Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance

• EFA 2026 Ghent; 2026 Delaware Corporate Governance Symposium; First Annual Corporate Governance Academic Forum 2025 Toronto; EUROFIDAI-ESSEC Paris December Finance Meeting 2025 

• NBER working paper 33828

When Loyalty is Optional: The Economics of Corporate Opportunity Waivers and CEO Compensation, with Ilona Babenka, and Benjamin Bennett

• CICF 2026 Hong Kong

Cash in Motion: Corporate Liquidity and Unsecured Bank Funding, with Giuseppe Cascarino, Juraj Hledik, and Roberto Pinto

• Covered by the HKU Jockey Club Enterprise Sustainability Global Research Institute

Does Greater Public Scrutiny Hurt a Firm’s Performance?, with Benjamin Bennett and René M. Stulz

• AFA 2024 San Antonio

• NBER working paper; Featured on NBER; Harvard Law School Forum

Central Bank Guidance and Commercial Bank Discretion: Evidence from China's Mortgage Market, with Michel Habib, Yushi Peng, and Yanjie Wang

• CICF 2023 Shanghai, EWFS 2024 Davos

• Seminars at the University of Melbourne, Deakin University

• CEPR discussion paper (DP17918)

• Interview at VoxTalks

Green Before the Bell? Environmental Risk and the Decision to Go Public, with Chelsea Yao and Yi Zou

• 2025 Annual Corporate Finance Conference 

Do Informative Stock Prices Simplify Executive Compensation? with Benjamin Bennett,  Gerald Garvey, and Todd Milbourn

• AFA 2020 San Diego

Why Do Firms Use Equity-based Pay? Managerial Compensation and Stock Price Informativeness, with Benjamin Bennett,  Gerald Garvey, and Todd Milbourn

Teaching Experiences

Corporate Financial Strategy (graduate, Lancaster)

Applied Corporate Finance (graduate, Lancaster)

Advanced Corporate Finance II (doctoral AcF857, Lancaster)

Principles of Finance (undergraduate AcF214L, Lancaster)

IPO (undergraduate AcF351b, Lancaster) 

International Finance (undergraduate, Bern) 

Empirical Corporate Finance (graduate, Bern)