Research Interests

Theoretical and empirical corporate finance and entrepreneurial finance with primary focus on: Venture Capital, Corporate Innovation, Mergers and Acquisitions, Labor, and Payout Policy.

My Google Scholar Page is here

Publications

[1]  “The Causes and Consequences of Venture Capital Stage Financing,” 2011, Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 101 (1), 132-159 [Download]

Ø  Winner of Jensen Prizes (2^nd prize) of Journal of Financial Economics

[2]  “The Role of Venture Capital Syndication in Value Creation for Entrepreneurial Firms,” 2012, Review of Finance, Vol. 16 (1), 245- 283 [Download]

[3]  “‘Preparing’ the Equity Market for Adverse Corporate Events: A Theoretical Analysis of Firms Cutting Dividends,” 2012, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (with Thomas Chemmanur), Vol. 47 (5), 993-972 [Download]

Ø  On the 2007 WFA program

[4]  “The Dark Side of Analyst Coverage: The Case of Innovation,” 2013, Journal of Financial Economics  (with Jie He), Vol. 109 (3), 856-878 [Download]

Ø  Supplemental material: Internet Appendix for “He and Tian (2013)”

Ø  Featured on Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation: https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2013/06/28/the-dark-side-of-analyst-coverage/

Ø  On the 2013 WFA program

[5]  “Tolerance for Failure and Corporate Innovation,” 2014, Review of Financial Studies (with Tracy Wang), Vol. 27 (1), 211-255 [Download]

Ø  On the 2009 NBER program

[6]  “Financial Development and Innovation: Cross-country Evidence,” 2014, Journal of Financial Economics (with Po-Hsuan Hsu and Yan Xu), Vol. 112 (1), 116-135 [Download] 

Ø  Data file mapping the USPTO technology classes to SIC codes is available here

[7]  “Communicating Private Information to the Equity Market Before a Dividend Cut: An Empirical Analysis,” 2014, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (with Thomas Chemmanur), Vol. 49 (5-6), 1167-1199 [Download] 

Ø  Summarized in CFA Digest 2015 Vol. 45 (10) http://www.cfapubs.org/doi/full/10.2469/dig.v45.n10.6

Ø  Featured on Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation: https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2013/07/13/communicating-private-information-to-the-equity-market-before-a-dividend-cut/

Ø  On the 2007 WFA program

 [8]  “Corporate Venture Capital, Value Creation, and Innovation,” 2014, Review of Financial Studies (with Thomas Chemmanur and Elena Loutskina), Vol. 27 (8), 2434-2473 [Download]

Ø  On the 2013 WFA program and 2011 NBER program

Ø  Featured on Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation: https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2014/07/15/corporate-venture-capital-value-creation-and-innovation/

[9]  “Does Stock Liquidity Enhance or Impede Firm Innovation?” 2014, Journal of Finance (with Vivian Fang and Sheri Tice), Vol. 69 (5), 2085–2125 [Download]

Ø  Supplemental material: Internet Appendix for “Fang, Tian, and Tice (2014)”

Ø  On the 2011 WFA program

[10]  “Does Banking Competition Affect Innovation?” 2015, Journal of Financial Economics (with Jess Cornaggia, Yifei Mao, and Brian Wolfe), Vol. 115 (1), 189-209 [Download]

Ø  Supplemental material: Internet Appendix for “Cornaggia, Mao, Tian, and Wolfe (2015)”

Ø  On the 2013 WFA program

[11]  “Locations, Proximity, and M&A Transactions” 2016, Journal of Economics & Management Strategy (with Ye Cai and Han Xia), Vol. 25 (3), 688-719 [Download]

[12]  “Disciplining Delegated Monitors: When Venture Capitalists Fail to Prevent Fraud by Their IPO Firms,” 2016, Journal of Accounting and Economics (with Gregory Udell and Xiaoyun Yu), Vol. 61 (2-3), 526-544 [Download]

Ø  On the 2013 WFA program

[13]  “Do Unions Affect Innovation?” 2017, Management Science (with Daniel Bradley and Incheol Kim), Vol. 63 (7), 2251-2271 [Download]

Ø  On the 2014 AEA and 2013 NBER program

[14]  “How do Foreign Institutional Investors Enhance Firm Innovation?” 2017, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (with L. Luong, F. Moshirian, L. Nguyen, and B. Zhang), Vol. 52 (4), 1449-1490 [Download]

[15]  “What Affects Innovation More: Policy or Policy Uncertainty?” 2017, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (with Utpal Bhattacharya, Po-Hsuan Hsu, and Yan Xu), Vol. 52 (5), 1861-1901  [Download]

Ø  On the 2014 EFA program

[16]  “Bank Interventions and Firm Innovation: Evidence from Debt Covenant Violations” 2017, Journal of Law and Economics (with Yuqi Gu and Connie Mao), Vol. 60 (4). 637-671 [Download]

[17]  “Accessibility and Materialization of Firm Innovation” 2018, Journal of Corporate Finance (with Ning Jia), Vol. 48 (1), 515-541 [Download]

[18]  “Do Antitakeover Provisions Spur Corporate Innovation? A Regression Discontinuity Analysis,” 2018, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (with Thomas Chemmanur), Vol. 53 (2), 1-32  [Download]

Ø  On the 2012 AFA program

[19]  “How Does Hedge Fund Activism Reshape Corporate Innovation?” 2018, Journal of Financial Economics (with Alon Brav, Wei Jiang, and Song Ma), Vol. 130 (2), 237-264 [Download]

Ø  Winner of Jensen Prizes (1^st prize) of Journal of Financial Economics

Ø  On the 2015 AFA program

Ø  Featured on Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation: https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2016/06/08/how-does-hedge-fund-activism-reshape-corporate-innovation/

[20]  “Corporate Innovation along the Supply Chain” 2019, Management Science (with Yongqiang Chu and Wenyu Wang), Vol. 65(6), 2445-2466 [Download]

Ø  On the 2015 AFA program

[21]  “The Real Effect of Privatization: Evidence from China's Split Share Structure Reform” 2020, Journal of Corporate Finance (with Yongxian Tan, Xinde Zhang, and Hailong Zhao), Vol. 64(3), 1-23 [Download]

[22]  “Asymmetric Cost Behavior and Dividend Policy” 2020, Journal of Accounting Research (with Jie He, Huan Yang, and Luo Zuo), Vol. 58(4), 989-1021 [Download]

Ø  Supplemental material: Internet Appendix for “He, Tian, Yang, and Zuo (2020)”

Ø  On the 2016 AFA program

[23]  “Peer Monitoring, Syndication, and the Dynamics of Venture Capital Interactions: Theory and Evidence” 2020, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (with Onur Bayar and Thomas Chemmanur), Vol. 55(6), 1875-1914 [Download]

[24]  “Financial Reporting Frequency and Corporate Innovation” 2020, Journal of Law and Economics (with Renhui Fu, Arthur Kraft, Huai Zhang, and Luo Zuo), Vol. 63 (3), 501-530 [Download]

[25]  “Stock Market Liberalization and Innovation” 2021, Journal of Financial Economics (with Fariborz Moshirian, Bohui Zhang, and Wenrui Zhang), Vol. 139 (3), 985-1014 [Download]

Ø  Supplemental material: Internet Appendix for “Moshirian, Tian, Zhang, and Zhang (2019)”

Ø  On the 2014 WFA program

[26]  “Hard Marriage with Heavy Burdens: Organized Labor as Takeover Deterrents” 2021, Review of Corporate Finance Studies (with Wenyu Wang), Vol. 10 (2), 306-346 [Download]

Ø  On the 2015 AFA program

[27]   “Human-Robot Interaction: Investors' Performance and Usage or Robo-Advisors in Peer-to-Peer lending” 2021, Information Systems Research (with Ruyi Ge, Li Liao, and Eric Zheng), Vol. 32 (3), 774-785

[28]   “Does Customer-base Structure Influence Managerial Risk-taking Incentives?” 2022, Journal of Financial Economics (with Jie Chen, Xunhua Su, and Bin Xu), Vol. 143 (1), 462-483 [Download]

Ø  Supplemental material: Internet Appendix for “Chen, Su, Tian, and Xu (2021)”

[29]   “How Does Human Capital Matter? Evidence from Venture Capital ” 2022, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (with Lifeng Gu, Ruidi Huang, and Yifei Mao), Vol. 57 (6), 2063-2094 [Download]

Ø  Supplemental material: Internet Appendix for “Gu, Huang, Mao, and Tian (2020)”

[30]   “ Patent Quality, Firm Value, and Investor Underreaction: Evidence from Patent Examiner Busyness ” 2022, Journal of Financial Economics (with Tao Shu and Xintong Zhan), Vol. 143 (3), 1043-1069 [Download]

[31]   “ Do Place-based Programs Affect Local Innovation and Entrepreneurship?” 2022, Review of Finance (with Jiajie Xu), Vol. 26 (3), 595-635 [Download]

Ø  Supplemental material: Internet Appendix for “Tian and Xu (2021)”

Ø  On the 2019 WFA program

[32]   “Do Venture Capital Investors Learn from Public Markets?” 2022, Management Science (with Bibo Liu), Vol. 68 (10), 7274-7297 [Download]

Ø  Featured on Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation: https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2016/06/16/is-the-stock-market-just-a-side-show-evidence-from-venture-capital/

 [33] “The Role of Human Capital: Evidence from Corporate Innovation,” 2023, Journal of Empirical Finance (with Tong Liu and Yifei Mao), Vol. 74, 1-20 [Download]

Ø  On the 2018 AFA program

[34]  “The Real Effects of Shadow Banking: Evidence from China” 2024, Management Science (with Guoqian Tu and Yichu Wang), Vol. 70, 8556-8582 [ Download ]

Ø  Supplemental material: Internet Appendix for “Tian, Tu and Wang (2023)”

[35]  “Do Short Sellers Affect Corporate Innovation? Evidence from a Policy Experiment ” 2025, Review of Corporate Finance Studies (with Jie He and Xiao Ren), Vol. 14, 125-165 [Download]

Ø  Supplemental material: Internet Appendix for “He, Ren and Tian (2023)”

Ø  On the 2016 AFA program

[36]  “Does Access to Patent Information Help Technological Acquisitions? Evidence from Patent Library Openings,” 2025, Journal of Accounting Research (with Connie Mao, Yueru Qin, and Chi Zhang), Vol. 63, 903-950 [Download]

Ø  Supplemental material: Internet Appendix for “Mao, Qin,Tian and Zhang (2024)”

[37]  “Does Political Uncertainty Affect Venture Capital? ” 2025, Review of Corporate Finance Studies (with Yichu Wang and Kailei Ye), Vol. 14, 439-481[Download]

[38]  “What a Relief: How do Firms Respond to Competitors' Listing Delays?” 2025, Contemporary Accounting Research (with Ning Jia, Jiaqi Qian, and Jinxin Yu), Vol. 42, 890-921 [ Download ]

Ø  Supplemental material: Internet Appendix for “Jia, Qian, Tian and Yu(2024)”

[39]  “Information Spillovers and Cross Monitoring between the Stock Market and Loan Market,”2025, Journal of Banking and Finance (with Matthew Billett and Fangzhou Liu), Vol.171, 107351 [ Download ]

[40]  “Trademarks in Entrepreneurial Finance,”2025, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice (with Onur Bayar, Thomas Chemmanur, Harshit Rajaiya, and Qianqian Yu), Vol. 49, 846-882 [ Download ]

Ø  Supplemental material: Internet Appendix for “Bayar, Chemmanur, Rajaiya,Tian and Yu(2024)”

[41]  “ Do Major Corporate Customers Deter Corporate Misconduct? ”2025, Journal of Accounting and Economics, (with Jie Chen, Xunhua Su, Bin Xu and Luo Zuo),Vol. 80, 101801 [ Download ]

[42]  “Do Shared Auditors Facilitate Follow-on Innovation? ”2026, Journal of Accounting Research, (with Jiawen Yan and Luo Zuo), Vol. 64, 477-514 [Download]

[43]  “The Incentives of SPAC Sponsors,”2026, Journal of Financial Economics, (with Felix Feng, Thomas Nohel, Wenyu Wang, and Yufeng Wu), Vol. 177, 104220 [Download]

Ø  Supplemental material: Internet Appendix for “Feng, Nobel,Tian, Wang and Wu(2025)”

Ø  On the 2024 AFA program

[44]  “House Speculation and Entrepreneurship ”2026, Review of Finance, (with Yichu Wang), Vol. 30, 757-794 [Download]

Ø  Supplemental material: Internet Appendix for “Tian and Wang(2025)”

[45]  “Less is More: Institutional Investors and Corporate Venture Capital,” 2026, Journal of Corporate Finance, (with Dongxu Li, Yifei Mao and Kailei Ye), Vol. 101, 103062 [ Download ]

Ø  On the 2021 AFA program

[46]  “Invest Local or Remote? The Effects of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Venture Capital Investment around the World,”2026, Management Science (with Pengfei Han, Chunrui Liu, and Kexin Wang), Vol.72, 3351-3370 [ Download ]

Ø  Supplemental material: Internet Appendix for “Han, Liu,Tian and Wang (2024)”

Ø  On the 2022 NBER and 2023 WFA program

[47]  “Does Trading Spur Specialization? Evidence from Patenting,”2026, Management Science, (with Pengfei Han and Chunrui Liu), Vol. 72, 4419-4434 [ Download ]

Ø  Supplemental material: Internet Appendix for “Han,Liu and Tian(2025)”

Ø  On the 2023 NBER program

[48]  “Do Product Market Threats Discipline Corporate Misconduct?”2026, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, (with Jie Chen, Xunhua Su, Bin Xu, and Xiaoyu Zhang), Forthcoming [ Download ]

Ø  Supplemental material: Internet Appendix for “Chen,Su,Tian,Xu and Zhang(2025)”

Ø  Featured on Columbia Law School’s Blog on Corporations and Capital Markets: https://clsbluesky.law.columbia.edu/2023/05/19/does-market-competition-discipline-corporate-misconduct/

[49]  “ Sharing Economy and Entrepreneurship,” Journal of Law and Economics, (with Yifei Mao, Jiajie Xu, and Kailei Ye) [ Download ]

Ø  Supplemental material: Internet Appendix for “Mao, Tian, Xu and Ye(2026)”

Ø  On the 2022 NBER Entrepreneurship program

Monographs and Book Chapters

[50]  “Finance and Corporate Innovation: A Survey” 2018, Asia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies (with Jie He), Vol. 47 (2), 165-212 [Download]

Ø  Featured on Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation: https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2017/11/27/finance-and-corporate-innovation-a-survey/

[51]   “China's Venture Capital Market ” 2020, in The Handbook of China's Financial System, (with Zhaojun Huang), Edited by Marlene Amstad, Guofeng Sun, and Wei Xiong, Princeton Press. [Download]

[52]   “Institutions and Innovation: A Review of Recent Literature ” 2020, Annual Review of Financial Economics, (with Jie He), Vol. 12(2), 377-398 [Download]

[53]   “Stage Financing in Venture Capital, ” 2023, in The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Private Equity, (with Zhaojun Huang), Edited by Douglas Cumming and Benjamin Hammer, Springer

[54]   “Corporate Governance and Innovation: A Survey of Chinese Evidence, ” 2024, in The Handbook of Corporate Governance in China, (with Zhaojun Huang), Edited by Martin Conyon and Lerong He, Edward Elgar [Download]

Working Papers

[55]  “Acquiring Innovation, ” with Merih Sevilir and Che Zhang [Download]

Ø  On the 2012 AFA program

[56]  “ Geopolitical Risks and Global Supply Chain Network, ” with Bo Jing and Xing Liu

Ø  On the 2025 CICF Program

[57]  “ Pay Transparency and Firm Leverage ” with Woon Sau Leung and Vathunyoo Sila [ Download ]

[58]  “When Experts Speak: Sequential LLM-Bayesian Learning for Startup Success Prediction,” with Yidong Chai, Alice Liu, Jiaheng Xie, and Yonghang Zhou [ Download ]

[59]  “The Salience of Climate Change and Green Patents Review,” with Jay Cao, Tao Shu, Yajing Wang, and Xintong Zhan[ Download ]

Ø  CFA Institute Beset Paper Awards on Sustainable Investment, Australian Banking and Finance Conference

[60]  “ Financial Shocks, Intangible Reallocation, and Innovation, ” with Tianyuan Jiang, Nina Yin, and Xuan Zhang

[61]  “Unveiling the Fog of Law: Judicial Transparency and Entrepreneurship,” with Xing Liu and Zhiming Zhu [ Download ]

Ø  On the 2026 AFA program

Ø  On the 2025 NBER Chinese Economy program

[62]  “ Do Consumers Care about Pay Inequality? Evidence from Household Purchase Data, ” with Konstantinos Bozos, Jie Chen, Yang Gao, and Jiayi Yuan[ Download ]

Ø  On the 2026 AFA program

Ø  On the 2025 CICF Program

[63]  “Diffusion of Technological Innovation along the Supply Chain,” with Che Zhang [ Download ]

Ø  On the 2025 CICF Program

[64]  “A Robust Green Patent Database: A New Dataset of Green Patents Through Large Language Model,” with Yuan Sun and Yuanchen Yang

Ø  On the 2024 NBER Innovation Information Technical Working Group Meeting

[65]  “ Interfirm Collaboration, Ownership Stakes, and Hold-up Costs: Evidence from the Pharmaceutical Industry ” with Matthew Billett and Ioannis Floros [ Download ]

[66]  “ From Fragility to Flexibility: How do Firms Respond to Upstream Technology Vulnerability? ” with Yuchan Lyu and Che Zhang[ Download ]

Ø  On the 2025 SFS Cavalcade North America Program

Ø  Best Paper Awards, 4th China Finance Frontier Research Conference

Ø  Best Paper Awards, 15th Financial Markets and Corporate Governance Conference

[67]  “ Inventor Performance Pressure and Strategic Innovation Management, ” with Sharon Huang and Tao Shu [ Download ]

[68]  “Financial Market Structure and Cash Holdings: A Laboratory of Dark Trading,” with Jonathan Brogaard, Woon Sau Leung, and Khaladdin Rzayev[ Download ]

[69]   “Rent Seeking, Brokerage Commissions, and the Pricing and Allocation in Initial Public Offerings ” with Thomas Chemmanur and Bibo Liu [Download]

Ø  On the 2018 NBER program

[70]  “Innovation under Passive Ownership ” with Yuanchen Yang [ Download ]

[71]  “Sunlight at City Hall: The Effect of Officials’ Financial Disclosure on Municipal Bond Market, ” with Bo Jing and Zheng Su

[72]  “Free Speech as Stakeholder Governance: Anti-SLAPP Laws and Product Quality Failures ” with Jie Chen, Yang Gao, Mengxi Li, and Jiayi Yuan

[73]  “How do the Trademarks Held by Private Firms Going Public Affect the Success of Their Initial Public Offerings?” with Onur Bayar, Thomas Chemmanur, Harshit Rajaiya, and Qianqian Yu

Books

◆  “Finance and Innovation: A New Framework” (in Chinese) 2018, Peking University Press (《创新的资本逻辑》)

◆  “Finance and Corporate Innovation: Advancing Innovation from Sustainable Growth: Implications for Asia” (co-edited with Bihong Huang and Bohui Zhang) 2020, Edward Elgar Press

◆  “The New Start of China’s Financial Innovation” (with Yiping Huang, Justin Lin, Kaisheng Yang, Gang Xiao, Zhuo Huang, Yan Shen, and Kai Guo, in Chinese) 2020, China Citic Press （《中国金融创新再出发》；合作者：黄益平、林毅夫、杨凯生、肖钢、沈艳、黄卓、郭凯）

◆  Book Translation to Chinese, “VC: An American History” by Tom Nicholas. 2020, China CITIC Press

◆  “Finance and Innovation: A New Framework” (in Chinese) 2021, 2nd edition, Peking University Press (《创新的资本逻辑》(第二版))

◆  Book Translation to Chinese, “The Power Low: Venture Capital and the Art of Disruption” by Sebastian Mallaby, 2022, Zhejiang Education Press （中译名《风险投资史》）

◆  “Imperfect Rational Man：A Note on Corporate Finance,（in Chinese）2023, China Machine Press （《不完美的理性人：公司金融通识课》）

◆  “Finance and Innovation: A New Framework” (in Chinese) 2025, 3rd edition, Peking University Press (《创新的资本逻辑》(第三版))

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