PERSONAL PROFILE
Kai Li is a Chair Professor of Finance at the PBC School of Finance, Tsinghua University. He is a recipient of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Young Scientists Fund (Category A, formerly the NSFC Distinguished Young Scholars) and the inaugural National Finance Distinguished Scholar Award. His research spans macro finance, asset pricing, green finance, and the Chinese financial market. His research centers on a macro-finance theoretical framework that captures the feedback mechanisms between the macroeconomy and financial markets. In particular, he has established a systematic research program in leasing finance, uncovering the critical role of leasing markets in risk sharing, capital allocation efficiency, and macroeconomic stability. His work has been published in leading journals, including the Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, and Journal of Monetary Economics, among others. His research on green finance has been recognized as a highly cited paper in the Journal of Finance and has received the Western Finance Association (WFA) Best Paper Award in Empirical Finance and the Amundi-ESSEC ESG Prize, among other honors. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for China Economic Quarterly (Chinese), Journal of Banking and Finance, Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Economics Letters, and other journals.
EDUCATION
2007–2013 Duke University, Ph.D., Economics
2004–2007 Peking University, M.A., Economics
2000–2004 Shanghai Jiao Tong University, B.A., Finance, with distinction
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENT
2026–Present Tsinghua University, PBC School of Finance, Chair Professor
2024–2026 Peking University HSBC Business School (PHBS), Professor, Assistant Dean (2024–25)
2021–2024 Peking University HSBC Business School (PHBS), Tenured Associate Professor
2013–2021 Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Business School, Assistant Professor
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Macro Finance, Asset Pricing, Leasing Finance, Green Finance, Chinese Financial Markets
PUBLICATION
1. Leasing as a Mitigation Channel of Capital Misallocation, with Weiwei Hu and Yiming Xu, Journal of Financial Economics, Accepted, 2025.
2. How to Dominate the Historical Average?, with Yingying Li, Changlei Lyu and Jialin Yu, Review of Financial Studies, Volume 38, Issue 10, October 2025.
3. Discussion of “Reallocating and Pricing Illiquid Capital: Two Productive Trees”, International Economic Review, 2025; 66.
4. The Technical Default Spread, with Emilio Bisetti and Jun Yu, Review of Financial Studies, Volume 37, Issue 11, November 2024.
5. Intermediary-Based Equity Term Structure, with Chenjie Xu, Journal of Financial Economics, Volume 157, July 2024.
6. Financial Constraint, Cash Flow Timing Patterns and Asset Prices, with Weiping Hu and Xiao Zhang, Journal of Financial Economics, Volume 157, July 2024.
7. Learning about the Consumption Risk Exposure of Firms, with Yongjin Kim and Lars-Alexander Kuehn, Journal of Financial Economics, Volume 152, February 2024.
8. The Pollution Premium, with Po-Hsuan Hsu and Chi-Yang Tsou, Journal of Finance, Volume 78, Issue 3, June 2023. Top cited recent articles in Journal of Finance over the last 5 years
9. Learning and the Capital Age Premium, with Chi-Yang Tsou and Chenjie Xu, Journal of Monetary Economics, Volume 136, May 2023.
10. Leasing as a Mitigation of Financial Accelerator Effects, with Jun Yu, Review of Finance, Volume 27, Issue 6, November 2023, Pages 2015–2056.
11. The Collateralizability Premium, with Hengjie Ai, Jun Li and Christian Schlag, Review of Financial Studies, Volume 33, Issue 12, December 2020.
12. Financial Intermediation and Capital Reallocation, with Hengjie Ai and Fang Yang, Journal of Financial Economics, Volume 138, Issue 3, December 2020.
13. News Shocks and Production-Based Term Structure of Equity Returns, with Hengjie Ai, Mariano M. Croce, and Anthony M. Diercks, Review of Financial Studies, Leading Article (Editor’s Choice), Volume 31, Issue 7, 2018.
14. Toward a Quantitative General Equilibrium Asset Pricing Model with Intangible Capital, with Hengjie Ai and Mariano M. Croce, Review of Financial Studies, Volume 26, Issue 2, 2013.
15. Lease-Adjusted Productivity Measurement, with Weiwei Hu and Yiming Xu, Journal of Banking and Finance, Volume 164, July 2024.
16. Leased Capital and the Investment-q Relation, with Linqing You, Journal of Corporate Finance, Volume 80, June 2023.
17. Leasing and the Allocation Efficiency of Finance, with Weiwei Hu and Yiming Xu, Journal of Empirical Finance, Volume 74, December 2023.
18. Asset Pricing with a Financial Sector, with Chenjie Xu, Financial Management, Volume 52, Issue 1, Spring 2023.
19. Regime Shifts in a Long-run Risks Model of Stock and Treasury Bond Markets, with Chenjie Xu, China Finance Review International, Leading Article (Editor’s Choice), Volume 12, No. 4, October 2022.
20. Model Hazard and Investment-Cash-Flow Sensitivity, with Hengjie Ai and Rui Li, Annals of Economics and Finance, 25-1, 2024.
21. Transitional Notional Defined Contribution Scheme: A New Option of China’s Social Security Pension Reform, with Gang Yi, Comparative Studies (in Chinese), No. 29, March 2007.
WORKING PAPER
See my research page for the full list: sites.google.com/site/kailiwebpage/research
HONORS AND AWARDS
• 2025, Recipient of the Inaugural National Finance Distinguished Scholar Award
• 2025, Research Excellence Award of Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School
• 2024, Top Cited Article in Journal of Finance in Recent Five Years (Top 3)
• 2024, Wharton School-WRDS Award for the Best Empirical Finance Paper at WFA
• 2024, Best Paper Award for 22nd Paris December Finance Meeting
• 2023, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School Excellent Faculty Award
• 2022, The Commodity & Energy Markets Association (CEMA) Amundi-ESSEC ESG Prize (“The Pollution Premium”)
• 2019, The Franklin Prize for Teaching Excellence, HKUST
EDITORIAL SERVICES
China Economic Quarterly, Associate Editor
Journal of Banking and Finance, Associate Editor
Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Associate Editor
Economics Letters, Associate Editor
Asia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies, Associate Editor
China Finance Review International, Associate Editor
TEACHING
International Finance (undergraduate), Chinese Fixed Income Markets (MBA), Financial Economics (Master/Ph.D.), Green Finance (Master), Asset Pricing Theory (Ph.D.), Research Methodology (Ph.D.), and Advanced Topics for PhD Students (Ph.D.)
