Alan Zhang

I am an Assistant Professor of Finance at Florida International University. My research broadly focuses on FinTech, investments and corporate finance, with a particular interest in analyzing unstructured textual data and big data on mutual funds, hedge funds and corporate disclosures.

My research has been published in Journal of Accounting Research, and has been presented at prestigious conferences, such as the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Economics of AI Conference, NBER Big Data and Securities Markets Conference, AFA, CICF, FIRS, and RCFS Winter Conference. It also has been featured on Bloomberg, CNBC, Financial Times, The Guardian, NBER Digest, Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog, and Oxford Business Law Blog.

Interests

• FinTech: Machine Learning, Textual Analysis
• Investments: Hedge Funds, Mutual Funds
• Corporate Finance: Disclosures, Behavioral Finance, Mergers and Acquisitions

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Georgia State University - J. Mack Robinson College of Business (2015 — 2021)
• Master of Science (MS) The Johns Hopkins University (2013 — 2014)
• Bachelor of Economics Xiamen University (2009 — 2013)

Publication

• Copycat Skills and Disclosure Costs: Evidence from Peer Companies’ Digital Footprints with Sean Cao, Kai Du, and Baozhong Yang, 2021, Journal of Accounting Research 59: 1261–1302.