Ayung Tseng

Areas of Expertise

Fundamental analysis, company disclosure, asset pricing, and industrial organization

Academic Degrees

• PhD, Columbia Business School, 2015
• MBA, Yale School of Management, 2009
• BBA, National Taiwan University, 2003

Professional Experience

• American Express, Finance Summer Intern, June 2008 – August 2008
• Mark Roble Investments, Associate, April 2006 – March 2007
• PricewaterhouseCoopers, Senior Advisory Associate, September 2003 – February 2006
• Certified Public Accounting (CPA), Taiwan 2005 (inactive status)
• Passed Chartered Financial Analyst Level III 2010

Awards, Honors & Certificates

• AAA FARS Excellence in Reviewing Award, 2015-16
• Columbia Business School Doctoral Fellowship, 2010-2015
• Paul and Sandra Montrone Doctoral Fellowship and Research Grant, Columbia Business School, 2013
• First place, NYSSA Investment Research Challenge, 2009
• Second place, CFA Global Investment Research Challenge, 2009
• Third place, UNC Alpha Challenge, 2008
• Taiwan Government Scholarship, 2007-2009
• Taiwan National Science Council Research Grant, 2003

Selected Publications

• Goetzmann, W., J. Griswold, and A. Tseng (2010), "Educational Endowments in Crises," Journal of Portfolio Management, Vol. 36, No. 4: pp. 112-123.

Abstract The year-end update of the 2009 Commonfund study found that the average university endowment lost more than 24% in the market value of its assets over the period from July 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008. A natural question to ask is whether these effects on institutions will be long lasting, particularly if the global economic recovery will be slow to materialize. The turmoil of the 1930s offers one of the few opportunities to examine the longer-term effect of a major economic shock on educational endowments. We find that equity investment by endowments actually increased in the 1930s following a low point in 1932. On the one hand, increased equity investment may have been an intentional policy based on financial research about the equity risk premium and concerns about inflation risk. On the other hand, the increase in equity investment may have been unintentional, the result of the widespread defaults, foreclosures, and bankruptcies that decimated fixed income and real estate during the 1930s. Endowment managers today, as in the 1930s, must not only calibrate their risk tolerance, but also calibrate their uncertainty tolerance, that is, the extent to which they can commit to an investment strategy with only slim statistical evidence on which to rely.