Wenzhi Ding (Dave)

Wenzhi Ding (Dave)

Finance, Governance, Tech

© 2025

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English | 中文

About Me

My research interests include how technology and law change finance and governance, and further, change business and society. All contacts are welcome!

Curriculum Vitae

Highlighted Messages

  • I am looking for one potential PhD student for the 2026 fall at HK PolyU (with funding). You will work in the field of governance using textual and network analysis and machine learning. Advanced Python skills are a must. Students are expected to start working as remote part-time RA with me as soon as possible. If you are interested, please send email with your CV to me.

Current Position

  • PolyU Logo Assistant Professor (Finance), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Education

  • HKU Logo Ph.D. (Finance) and M.Fin. (FinTech), University of Hong Kong
  • SYSU Logo B.Mgmt. (Accounting), Sun Yat-Sen University

Working Papers

  1. Disasters, Social Commitment, and Supply Chain Dynamics (with Xu Li, Qingyuan Lyu)
    • Working Paper | SSRN | PDF
    • Brief: Socially irresponsible customers abandon disrupted suppliers during disasters, leading to a faster recovery and stronger product market performance. Social commitment acts as a supply chain switching cost.
    • Conference: International Corporate Governance Conference 2024, 37th Australian Finance and Banking Conference, 24th China Economics Annual Conference

  2. Proprietary Costs and Supply-Chain Collaboration (with Xiong Li, Guochang Zhang)
    • Working Paper | PDF
    • Brief: Fewer proprietary information leakage concern on supply chain, more supply chain collaboration.

  3. Directors’ Incentives from Potential Regulatory Penalties: Evidence from their Voting (with Chen Lin, Thomas Schmid, Michael S. Weisbach)
    • Working Paper | SSRN | R&R at Management Science
    • Brief: Directors monitor firm more diligently after knowing close contact being penalized by the regulator for negligence.
    • Media Coverage: The Regulatory Review (UPenn)
    • Conference: FMA Annual Meeting 2021, FIFI Conference 2021

For other earlier stage working papers, please refer to my CV

Publications

  1. ESG Scores, Scandal Probability, and Event Returns (with Wenya Sun, Yichen Luo, S.M. Yiu, Luping Yu)
    • Financial Innovation (2024) | PDF
    • Brief: High ESG scores can lower the probability of an ESG scandal but can also incur higher losses if one occurs. Based on a theoretical model, the firm has two equilibria of the optimal ESG investment level - not doing at all or doing a lot.

  2. Competition Laws, Ownership and Corporate Social Responsibility (with Ross Levine, Chen Lin, Wensi Xie)

  3. Corporate Immunity to the COVID-19 Pandemic (with Ross Levine, Chen Lin, Wensi Xie)