In order to enhance the scientific research atmosphere, Shenzhen University Institute of FinTech continues to hold the serial academic lectures. On the afternoon of November 8, 2023, the institute invited Assistant Professor Hu Rong from The Chinese University of Hong Kong to give an academic lecture. The lecture was hosted by Associate Professor Karen Lai from Shenzhen University Institute of FinTech.

In this lecture, Assistant Professor Hu Rong introduced her recent research achievements: Using five waves of representative Chinese household survey data, this paper investigates the impacts of natural disasters on household investment decisions. We find that natural disasters reduce households’ propensity to participate in the stock market and decrease the proportion of stocks in their overall asset portfolio. Our findings suggest that households’ responses to natural disasters are primarily driven by risk aversion, rather than wealth reduction. We also find that wealthier, insured, and more financially sophisticated families are less affected. Moreover, this effect of natural disasters can spill over to neighboring regions and decay over time. Our results are robust to IV analysis, falsification tests, subsample analysis and using alternative measures of key variables. Overall, our findings shed light on the role of natural disasters in shaping household risk-taking behaviors and provide a new perspective into Chinese households’ limited participation in stock markets.

After the lecture, Assistant Professor Hu Rong also had a thorough communication with the faculty members and students of the institute. The academic atmosphere on site was enthusiastic.


Introduction of the lecturer:

Hu Rong is currently an Assistant Professor of Real Estate and Finance at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She received her PhD in Finance in 2013, and Bachelor of Engineering in 2008 from National University of Singapore. Her main research interests include real estate finance, empirical corporate finance, and banking. Her research papers have been presented at several international finance and real estate conferences, and published in leading journals such as Management Science, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and Real Estate Economics.