Junior Academics Research Seminars (JARS) in Finance

Markus Bak-Hansen is a 6th year PhD student at HEC Paris, whose research focuses on over-the-counter markets, relationships between financial institutions and retail trading. His job market paper studies the dynamics of trading relationships between an OTC dealer and its customers and shows that investment banks design their organisational structure to strengthen long-term customer relationships. Markus' other research projects focus on reference prices in over-the-counter markets and speculative clean-energy investments by retail traders. Markus holds a MPhil in Finance from University of Cambridge and a BSc in Economics from the University of Copenhagen. Before starting his doctoral studies, he worked as a derivatives trader at Danske Bank. 

Sun Yong is a 6th year Finance PhD student at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, USA. His solo papers study the global ramifications of US fiscal policy, tying the US fiscal condition to key puzzling phenomena in international macro-finance such as i) the US exorbitant privilege, ii) the reserve currency paradox and iii) the global financial cycle in risky asset markets. These papers have been presented at some of the world’s top academic finance and economics conferences such as the Econometric Society (ES), Society for Economic Dynamics (SED), Western Finance Association (WFA), European Finance Association (EFA) and the Financial Intermediation Research Society (FIRS). They have also twice been awarded the Brattle Group PhD Candidate Award for Outstanding Research at the 2022 and 2023 WFA Meetings.

Zhenkai Ran is a PhD candidate in Finance at Cambridge Judge Business School (2021-current). He is jointly funded by Cambridge Judge Business School and the Centre for Endowment Asset Management, and is supervised by Prof. Andrei Kirilenko and Prof. Raghavendra Rau. He holds an MPhil in Economic Research at the Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge. His research focuses on empirical corporate finance, ESG, market microstructure, FinTech, and public pension liabilities,

Rouzhi Wang is a Ph.D. candidate in Finance at Rutgers Business School, USA. Her supervisor is Darius Palia. Her research interests include financial institutions, FinTech, and corporate governance. Specifically, her current works explore the security lending market equilibrium, FinTech mortgage lenders, and executive compensation. She has published in the Journal of Corporate Finance.

Elias is a Research Associate at the Cambridge Centre for Finance (CCFIN) and the Cambridge Endowment for Research in Finance (CERF) at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School. His research lies at the intersection between asset management and incentivisation mechanisms. His current projects explore the causes and potential solutions to incentive alignment problems in the mutual fund industry. His most recent work highlights the beneficial effects of employee satisfaction and the harmful effects of portfolio manager workplace connectedness on incentive alignment and, ultimately, mutual fund performance.