Jing (Jane) Li

Contact: jingli@nus.edu.sg

Welcome!

I am a Research Fellow at the Institute of Real Estate and Urban Studies, National University of Singapore. I received my PhD in Finance from The University of Hong Kong in 2023, my MA in Statistics from Columbia University in 2018, and my BS in Math/Econ from University of California, Los Angeles in 2016.

Research Interests:

Household Finance, Corporate Finance, Real Estate, Gender, Big Data

You can find my CV here.

Research

Working Papers
When the Opportunity Presents: Female Labor Reaction to Gender Quota on Boards Job Market Paper
with Mandy Zhang
  • Abstract: We document that California's 2018 board gender quota mandate motivated regular female employees to invest more in their professional development. Leveraging LinkedIn resume data, we find that women in industries further from meeting the quota were significantly more likely to pursue an MBA and maintain continuous career trajectories. This uptick in MBA enrollment was especially pronounced among women at higher career stages, with leadership-oriented skills, degrees from higher-ranked universities, and in industries where MBAs are more closely associated with board appointments. Reductions in career gaps were most evident around the typical age of first childbirth. Importantly, we find no evidence of a crowding-out effect on male employees' self-investment. Our findings offer empirical support that board gender quotas can enhance women's human capital investment, reinforcing the long-term potential of affirmative action policies to reduce gender disparities in corporate leadership.
When Jane Goes Green and John Stays Put: The Gender Gap in Sustainable Investing
with Pulak Ghosh and Jian Zhang
R&R, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis
  • Abstract: Using a unique panel dataset of consumer financial transactions and portfolio holdings, we provide evidence on gender differences in sustainable investment. Female investors allocate more to green stocks than comparable males, and this effect increases with economic status and is more pronounced in regions with equitable norms. The difference reflects a spatially narrow mandate, with women prioritizing local environmental impacts over global ones. Robustness checks confirm that the gap reflects climate preferences, not risk tolerance or portfolio traits, and is also mirrored in carbon consumption footprints. Through two quasi-experiments that create plausibly exogenous increases in climate change risk awareness, we show that female investors demonstrate a stronger response in shifting to green investments, which ultimately translates into better performance. Consistent with intergenerational altruism as a key mechanism, the gender gap narrows with aging and converges post-childbirth.
The Role of Public Policy in Enhancing Supplier Entry and Supply Chain Resilience
with Ben Charoenwong, Christopher Chen, and Alan Kwan
Reject & Resubmit, Production and Operations Management
  • Abstract: Using data from North America's largest online platform for supplier sourcing, we analyze supplier responses to demand for COVID-19 products during the pandemic and study how fiscal support, procurement practices, and regulatory adjustments affect suppliers' entry decision. Leveraging the pandemic as a natural experiment, we estimate the moderating effects of different government policies on entry decisions. We find that firms in states with greater fiscal support, decentralized procurement practices, better IT infrastructure, and reduced licensing requirements are significantly more responsive to demand. This effect is most pronounced for firms with prior government contracting experience. A one-standard-deviation increase in demand is associated with a 60% increase in the baseline probability of entry in supportive policy environments. Policymakers may consider (1) decentralizing procurement processes to enhance flexibility, (2) investing in government IT infrastructure to reduce transaction costs, (3) implementing targeted fiscal support during crises, and (4) reducing regulatory barriers to entry to build more resilient domestic supply chains for essential products during future emergencies.
  • Presentation: INFORMS Annual Meeting, CORS-INFORMS
Local Rules, Distant Woes: Shifting Consumption Preference Through Social Ties
with Haiqiang Chen and Wenlan Qian
Submitted
  • Abstract: This paper studies how localized public health interventions can cause lasting shifts in consumption behavior, even without direct exposure to the underlying risk. Using transaction-level data from a major Chinese payment platform, we show that hometown mobility restrictions reduce offline spending by 8% even when consumers reside in cities unaffected by the same shock. The effect is larger for older individuals and those from areas with limited medical resources or greater reliance on in-person work, consistent with perceived health risk transmitted through family ties. After restrictions end, offline spending remains below pre-shock levels, while online purchases rise persistently, indicating a lasting change in consumption preferences.
  • Presentation: CIFFP Best Paper Award, CFRC, First Winter Finance Summit in Asia, EasternFA
Real Effects of Trade Policy: SME Credit Responses to the 2025 Trade War
with Sumit Agarwal and Huanhuan Zheng
  • Abstract: This paper studies how sudden trade policy shocks affect firm-level credit dynamics by examining the 2025 U.S.-China tariff war. Using detailed administrative data on bank loans from a regional bank in Zhejiang province, a major export hub in China, we find a significant decline in credit demand from Chinese exporter firms following the introduction and escalation of tariffs, with no corresponding contraction in credit supply. Specifically, exporter firms reduced their current borrowing by 6.5% and new loan originations by 17.8%, with sharper declines among firms heavily engaged in U.S. trade. Heterogeneity tests show that larger exporters and firms with higher pre-existing export volumes responded more strongly, while manufacturers reduced borrowing less than non-manufacturers, suggesting greater resilience due to internal production capabilities and flexibility in reallocating export destinations. Our findings underscore that trade policy uncertainty can induce significant financial frictions by dampening credit demand, especially among trade-exposed firms, and that firm characteristics shape the intensity and persistence of such responses.
Catch-Up or Divergence? Digital Service Demand and the Distribution of Bank Technology Adoption
with Alan Kwan, Chen Lin, Vesa Pursiainen, and Mingzhu Tai
  • Abstract: Using a variety of novel datasets, we study the joint dynamics of banks' and banking customers' technology adoption decisions. We use the COVID-19 pandemic as a laboratory, which raised the cost of using in-person bank services. After the pandemic, banking customers, particularly tech-oriented ones, sharply transition from branch to digital banking. Banks -- especially those with ex-ante better IT -- respond to customer demand for digital services by closing branches and upgrading their technology. These strong-IT banks gain market share, suggesting a shift toward tech adoption increases banking concentration and technology polarization.
Separating Control and Cash Flow Rights with Moral Hazard
with Haotian Feng and Jiongyi Xue
  • Abstract: This paper extends the work of Liu and Bernhardt (2025) by demonstrating that a small degree of separation between control and cash flow rights in auction mechanisms can increase the seller's expected revenue, even in the presence of significant moral hazard concerns. We show that the first-order revenue gain from reducing bidders' information rents outweighs the first-order loss from the controller's under-provision of effort due to moral hazard, resulting in the separation mechanism dominating the non-separation benchmark regardless of the sensitivity of project payoffs to the controller's effort. This finding advocates the robustness of ownership-control separation as a revenue-enhancing auction design strategy.
Publications
Does Common Institutional Ownership Mitigate Hold-up Problems along the Supply Chain?
with Yongning Deng, Qilin Peng, and Wentao Yao
Financial Management, 2024
Work in Progress
Fiscal Pressure, Regulatory Opportunism, and Business Retreat: Evidence from China's Real Estate Crisis
with Chen Lin, Shihua Qin, and Mingzhu Tai
Stamping Out Gender Disparities: How Targeted Tax Incentives Promote Female Homeownership
with Sumit Agarwal, Pulak Ghosh, and Jian Zhang
Financial Awareness through Fintech: Evidence from UPI and Mortgage Delinquency in India
with Sumit Agarwal, Pulak Ghosh, and Jian Zhang
The Effect of Trade War on Local Consumption and the Retail Sector in China
with Wenlan Qian and Haiqiang Chen