The 329th Wenlan Financial Forum

Abstract：

Using random H-1B visa lotteries as a natural experiment, we document that firms respond to shortages of high-skilled workers by acquiring firms that have such workers and own negligible amounts of tangible assets. Additional tests show that desire for the targets' skilled labor is an important driver of these acquisitions. Using the near-universe of employee LinkedIn profiles and H-1B visa microdata, we also provide direct evidence that skilled workers are hired through these acquisitions. Our findings suggest skilled labor is an important driver of acquisitions and acquisitions are an effective means of hiring skilled labor.

Speaker Introduction：

Feng Zhang is currently a tenured associate professor of finance and the Corrigan Research Professor at the Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University. He earned his Ph.D. in Finance from the University of British Columbia in 2011, following a Master of Accounting from Xi’an Jiaotong University and a Master of Economics from the National University of Singapore. His research focuses on long-term financial performance, corporate mergers and acquisitions, high-skilled labor mobility, gender and financial decision-making, and related areas. His work has been published in top-tier journals such as the Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and Management Science, with several papers receiving academic accolades, including the Best Paper Award at the 2019 TCU Finance Conference and the Best Ph.D. Student Paper Award from the Society for Behavioral Finance in 2011. His studies on “Board Gender Diversity and Acquisition Costs” and “Executive Testosterone Levels and M&A Decisions” have been widely covered by international media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and Financial Times, sparking ongoing attention from both academia and the general public.

Professor Zhang actively contributes to academic service, currently serving as an associate editor for the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, and as a reviewer for leading finance journals. He has organized committees for international conferences, including the Financial Management Association (FMA) and the European Finance Association (EFA), and has delivered invited lectures at institutions such as the University of Cambridge, Fudan University, and the Australian National University. His teaching excellence has been recognized with awards including the 2018 Sigma Chi Fraternity Excellence in Teaching Award and the 2017 “Emerging Scholar” distinction by the University of Utah’s Business School. Currently, he is advancing research on the impact of cross-border talent mobility on financial markets and the evaluation of long-term investment performance, fostering deeper dialogue between theoretical and practical finance.