Prof. John WEI
Associate Dean (Research and Postgraduate Studies)
Chair Professor of Financial Economics

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john.wei@polyu.edu.hk
2766 4953
2330 9845
M1043
Research Area:
Finance & Financial Services

Consulting, Research and Teaching Interests:
Asset pricing
Behavioural economics, finance, and accounting
Corporate governance and compensation
Cost of equity capital and firm valuation





Biography
Selected Works

Professor John Wei is currently Chair Professor of Financial Economics at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). He received his PhD in Finance from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. He previously taught at University of Mississippi, University of Miami, and Indiana University. Before joining PolyU, he served as Chair Professor of Finance at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and had worked there for 24 years. He previously served as Director of Value Partners Center for Investing and Director of the Center for Asian Financial Markets and Director of Master of Science (Financial Analysis)/(Investment Management) Programs at the HKUST for many years. He served as Acting Head in the Department of Finance at HKUST during the period of January 2000-August 2002, February-June 2003, and June 2015. Moreover, he assisted to develop wealth management and investment models for, among others, Hang Seng Bank Limited, HSBC Corporation Limited, and Fidelity Investments Management (Hong Kong) Limited.
Professor Wei’s research interests are mainly in the areas of empirical asset pricing, international finance, and corporate governance. He has published more than sixty articles in leading finance and accounting journals, including?Journal of Finance,?Journal of Financial Economics,?The Accounting Review,?Management Science,?Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and?Journal of Business, among others.
Professor Wei is best known for his extensive research on the cross-section of stock returns in the U.S. and international markets. He has discovered some new and important anomalies associated with cross-sectional return predictability and have first introduced "individualism" to the empirical asset pricing literature. Four of these papers have been cited by 2013 Economic Nobel Prize Laureate, Eugene Fama, and his co-author, Kenneth French. Most of his papers are well cited. Many of his papers are associated with the foundation of those factors in the Fama and French (2015) five-factor model and the Hou, Xue, and Zhang (2015) q-factor model.
He has received more than 8.1 million HK dollars (= 1.04 million US dollars) grant from Hong Kong SAR's Research Grants Council as principal investigator.

Liu, Laura Xiaolei, Haibing Shu, and K.C. John Wei, 2016, “The impacts of political uncertainty on asset prices: Evidence from the Bo scandal in China,”?Journal of Financial Economics, forthcoming.
Cen, Ling, K.C. John Wei, and Liyan Yang, 2016, “Disagreement, underreaction, and stock returns,”?Management Science, forthcoming.
Mao, Qinghao Mike, and K.C. John Wei, 2016, “Cash flow news and the investment effect in the cross-section of stock returns,”?Management Science?62, 2504-2519.
Titman, Sheridan, K.C. John Wei, and Feixue Xie, 2013, “Market development and the asset growth effect: International evidence,”?Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis?48, 1405-1432.
Chen, Zhihong, Yan Huang, and K.C. John Wei, 2013, “Executive pay disparity and the cost of equity capital,”?Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis?48, 849-885.
Cen, Ling, Gilles Hilary, and K.C. John Wei, 2013, “The role of anchoring bias in the equity market: Evidence from analysts’ earnings forecasts and stock returns,”?Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis?48, 47-76.
Lam, Eric F.Y.C., and K.C. John Wei, 2011, “Limits-to-arbitrage, investment frictions, and the asset growth anomaly,”?Journal of Financial Economics?102, 127-149.
Chen, Kevin C.W., Zhihong Chen, and K.C. John Wei, 2011, “Agency costs of free cash flows and the effect of shareholder rights on the implied cost of capital,”?Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis?46, 171-207.
Chui, Andy C.W., Sheridan Titman, and K.C. John Wei, 2010, “Individualism and momentum around the world,”?Journal of Finance?65, 361-392.