Edwin Hu

Associate Professor of Law
University of Virginia School of Law

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PIN Estimates | SAS Macros | Software

Biography

Edwin Hu is an associate professor at University of Virginia School of Law. His scholarship is focused on the empirical analysis of corporate and securities law and the structure of financial markets. Before joining UVA Law, Professor Hu was a senior economic policymaker, advising the White House’s National Economic Council and as Chief Economist to SEC Commissioner Robert J. Jackson, Jr.

Professor Hu’s research studies gaps in market structure and financial regulation. His work on the regulation of financial advice shows how advisors who pose the most risk to investors seek out lax legal regimes to avoid accountability. Professor Hu’s study of institutional investors’ voting behavior identified how some funds seek share lending revenue rather than vote in contested corporate matters. And his examination of stock-exchange activity during the COVID-19 pandemic raised questions about the effects of outdated market structure on today’s investors.

Professor Hu’s research has helped produce significant policy reforms, including the SEC’s recent institutional voting transparency initiative and its proposal to increase competition for retail stock orders. His current policy initiatives include a joint effort he co-Chaired with faculty from the Wharton School to facilitate accountability in initial public offerings in the wake of recent Supreme Court rulings on that subject. Professor Hu’s work has been published in leading academic journals, such as the Journal of Financial Economics and the Stanford Law Review, and featured prominently across major periodicals including The Atlantic, Bloomberg, The Economist, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the front page of The Wall Street Journal.

He holds two undergraduate degrees, in economics and applied computational mathematics, from the University of Washington, a masters and Ph.D. in finance from Rice University, and a J.D. from New York University School of Law, where he was a Furman Academic Scholar and a Fellow at the Institute for Corporate Governance & Finance.

Research

Working Papers

Custom Proxy Voting Advice (SSRN)

with Jonathon Zytnick and Nadya Malenko

  • Covered in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.
  • Presented at American Law and Economics Association (2023) Junior Scholars Featured Papers Panel, NYU Law Institute for Corporate Governance Spring Roundtable (2023*), Clemson ESG Conference (2024*), UT Austin Business Law & Economics Workshop (2024), Northern Finance Association (2024) Best Paper Award in Corporate Finance, PRI Academic Network Conference (2024*), CELS (2024), Tulane Corporate and Securities Roundtable (2025).

Regulatory Leakage Among Financial Advisors: Evidence From FINRA Regulation of “Bad” Brokers

with Colleen Honigsberg and Robert J. Jackson, Jr. (SSRN)

  • Revise and Resubmit, J. Fin. Econ.
  • Presented at Harvard Law School Workshop in Empirical Law and Economics (2022), Corporate and Securities Litigation Workshop (2022), Junior Corporate Law Workshop (2022), University of Texas Law, Business, and Economics Workshop (2022*), Northwestern Pritzker Law and Economics Colloquium (2022), NYU Law and Economics Workshop (2023), Stanford Law Faculty Workshop (2023*), American Law and Economics Association (2023), American Finance Association (2024), SEC Investor Advisory Committe (2024).

Competition for Retail Order Flow and Market Quality

with Dermot Murphy (SSRN)

The Index-Fund Dilemma: An Empirical Study of the Lending-Voting Tradeoff

with Joshua Mitts and Haley Sylvester (SSRN)

Vestigial Tails? Floor Brokers at the Close in Modern Electronic Markets

with Dermot Murphy (SSRN)

Publications

Regulatory Arbitrage and the Persistence of Financial Misconduct, 74 Stan. L. Rev. 737 (2022), with Colleen Honigsberg and Robert Jackson (SSRN, PDF)

  • Cited in DOL Investment Advice Fiduciary Rule
  • Covered in ThinkAdvisor, MarketWatch, Financial Planning, InvestmentNews, Nasdaq News and Insights
  • Presented at JCLAW (2020*), Berkeley Law, Accounting, & Business Workshop (2020), NYU Law and Economics Faculty Workshop (2021), Harvard Empirical Law and Finance Workshop (2021), Goethe University LawFin Seminar (2021), 33rd Annual Tulane Corporate Law Institute (2021*), Oxford Business Law Workshop (2021*), Investor Issues Dialogue (2021).
  • Previously circulated under working title “Wandering Financial Advisors”
  • Winner of the 2023 Order of the Coif Gasaway Award for Best Article.

Financial Integration and Credit Democratization: Linking Banking Deregulation to Economic Growth, 45 J. Fin. Intermediation 100857 (2021), with Elizabeth Berger, Alexander Butler, and Morad Zekhnini (SSRN, DOI)

  • Presented at Rice University (2012*), Financial Management Association Conference (FMA 2013), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC, 2014*), Fordham University (2014*), University of Cincinnati (2014*), University of Kentucky (2014*), Yale School of Management (2015*).

A Comparison of Some Structural Models of Private Information Arrival, 135 J. Fin. Econ. 795 (2020), with Jefferson Duarte and Lance Young, (SSRN, DOI)

  • Presented at Rice University (2015), Texas A&M (2015*), Multinational Finance Society Conference (MFS, 2015*) Best Paper Award, China International Finance Conference (CICF, 2015*), Society of Financial Econometrics Conference (SoFiE, 2015*), Instituto Technologico Autonomo de Mexico Conference (ITAM, 2015*), American Finance Association Conference (AFA, 2016), University of Washington (2016*), University of Virginia (McIntire) (2017*), Southern Methodist University (2017*).
  • Data and Previous Refereed Versions
  • Previously circulated under working title “Does the PIN Model Mis-Identify Private Information and If So, What is the Alternative?”

Policy Work

I worked on policy issues including M&A disclosures, margin requirements for security futures, human capital disclosures, executive hedging disclosures, the Transaction Fee Pilot, and the Volcker Rule. I also conducted original policy research summarized below:

Reducing Investor Protections around Private Markets (Accredited Investor Definition)

  • Conducted research showing that private placement brokers have unusually high levels of sales practice complaints and misconduct. Furthermore, past investor harm is highly predictive of investor harm in the future—hence, supposedly sophisticated investors still have a hard time sorting good brokers from bad.
  • Selected coverage: Bloomberg (Money Stuff)
  • Featured: HLS Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation

Letter from Robert J. Jackson, Jr. to Congresswoman Maloney on Political Spending Disclosure

Proposed Rules Governing Proxy Advisors and Shareholder Proposals

Rules Governing Investment Advice (Regulation Best Interest)

Amendments to Sarbanes-Oxley 404(b) Accelerated Filer Definition

  • Conducted research on the costs and benefits of rolling back auditor attestation requirements for smaller firms.
  • Received support from dozens of law and accounting faculty.
  • Selected coverage: Wall Street Journal

Stock Buybacks and Corporate Cashouts

Intentional Access Delays, Market Quality, and Price Discovery: Evidence from IEX Becoming an Exchange

CBOE (BATS) Market Close: Off-Exchange Closing Volume and Price Discovery

  • Conducted research showing that existing fragmentation of the close has not negatively impacted closing price discovery. First SEC economic analysis to use regulatory audit trail and TRF data. Involved an unprecedented data fight between the exchanges.
  • Led to NYSE cutting its top tier MOC fees by two-thirds.
  • Approved unanimously by the Commission, despite lobbying from a former SEC Chair, Chief Economist, two leading financial economists, and a prominent attorney who later became a Cabinet Secretary.
  • Selected coverage: Wall Street Journal

Tick Size Pilot Program and Market Quality

with Paul Hughes, John Ritter, Patti Vegella, and Hao Zhang

  • We find evidence that market quality deteriorates after the Tick Size Pilot widens quoting increments to five cent increments.
  • Cited by Former Commissioner and Acting Chair Michael Piwowar in House Testimony.

Contact

UVA School of Law Last Updated: 2024-09-23
580 Massie Road 📧: ehu@law.virginia.edu
Charlottesville, VA 22903 🌐: edwinhu.github.io