We are happy to announce that Ran Xing will join the SBS Finance group in September 2021. His position is funded by a Browaldh grant from Handelsbankens Forskningsstiftelser.
Ran, welcome to SBS! What is your research about?
- I conduct both theoretical and empirical research in finance. My current work focuses on the trading skill of institutional investors (including mutual funds and hedge funds), fund managers' career concerns, and their implications to the financial market.
What are the implications of your work?
- My works show that institutional investors are sophisticated at identifying good investment opportunities, and they invest by optimally trading off their current profits, growth potentials, and risk management. However, the aggregate investment of institutional investors does not always improve the efficiency of the financial market. In particular, my coauthors and I find that mutual funds identify investment opportunities at different time horizons (from days to years). Young fund managers are more likely to invest in short-term opportunities which reveal their skills faster. As a consequence, the stock price is more efficient at higher frequencies.
What do you like about Stockholm?
- I always told my friends that Stockholm has the best combination of humanity and nature. It is definitely one of the most beautiful cities in the world especially in the summer. In the winter you can focus on your research instead. More importantly, I like the sincerity of people here, including my wife and my daughter.