Yun Liu, PhD

Dr. Yun Liu, who joined KGI in July 2016, received her PhD in finance from the University of Maryland, MA in Economics from Simon Fraser University, and BEcon in Money and Banking from Peking University. Prior to joining KGI, Dr. Liu served an Assistant Professor in the School of Business at UC Riverside.

Liu’s teaching experience spans diverse corporate finance topics, education levels, and instructional modalities. Her commitment to excellence in teaching has been consistently recognized at UMD, UCR, and KGI, where she received the 2020 Riggs Excellence in Teaching Award and the 2023 Riggs Teaching Innovation Award. She serves as the faculty advisor for the KGI Investment Club and is affiliated with the Claremont Mckenna College Financial Economics Institute. In addition, Liu contributes her expertise to financial literacy workshops in the local community.

Liu’s primary research interest is empirical corporate finance, including executive compensation and turnover, board compensation and diversity, social networks, corporate governance, and financial reporting. Liu has published in the Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Financial Management, and Quarterly Journal of Finance. Her research has been presented and awarded in international and regional academic conferences. Her research has also been featured in various media outlets, such as the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, the Columbia Law School’s Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets, and the CFA Institute Asia Research Exchange.

Dr. Liu currently serves as the Director of the Team Master’s Project (TMP), the capstone of the KGI Master of Business and Science (MBS) program.

Of Fogs and Bogs: Does Litigation Risk Make Financial Reports Less Readable? (with M. Humphery-Jenner, V. Nanda, S. Silveri, and M. Sun), Journal of Banking and Finance 163 (2024), 107180. doi: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2024.107180.

Venture Capital Exits and Investments: The Influences of Market Run-up, Market Timing, and Media Attention (with P. Chung and R. Smith), Quarterly Journal of Finance 13 (2023), 2350012. doi: 10.1142/S201013922350012X.

IPO Market Timing in Venture Capital (with P. Chung and R. Smith), in The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Private Equity (2023). doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-38738-9_88-1.

Employment Mobility and Pay for Sector Performance (with V. Nanda, B. Onal, and S. Silveri), Journal of Corporate Finance 70 (2021), 102069. doi:  10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2021.102069.

Director Diversity and Inclusion: At the Table but in the Game? (with N. K. Chidambaran and N. R. Prabhala), Financial Management (2021), 12366. doi: 10.1111/fima.12366.

The Dark Side of CEO Social Capital: Evidence from Real Earnings Management and Future Operating Performance (with P. Griffin, H. Hong, and J. Ryou), Journal of Corporate Finance 68 (2021), 101920. doi: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2021.101920.

Inter-Firm Connections, Alliance Formation and the Value Created by Alliances (with T. Mantecon, S. Silveri, and W. Sun), Quarterly Journal of Finance 10 (2020), 2050019. doi: 10.1142/s2010139220500196.

The Price of Boardroom Social Capital: The Effects of Corporate Demand for External Connectivity (with S. P. Ferris and D. Javakhadze), Journal of Banking and Finance 111 (2020), 105729. doi: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2019.105729.

Outside Options and CEO Turnover: The Network Effect, Journal of Corporate Finance 28 (2014), 201-217. doi: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2014.03.004.