Edwin Hu
NYU School of Law
Postdoctoral Fellow
Institute for Corporate Governance & Finance
CV (PDF) | SSRN | LinkedIn | GitHub
PIN Estimates | SAS Macros | Software
Biography
Edwin is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the NYU School of Law Institute for Corporate Governance & Finance where he writes in empirical law and finance. His current research is focused on financial advisors, institutional voting, and equity market structure. His scholarly and policy research has been published or is forthcoming in the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Financial Intermediation, 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.
Previously, he was chief economist and counsel to Commissioner Robert J. Jackson Jr. at the Securities and Exchange Commission on broker-dealer, exchange, and market structure issues. His original policy analysis on shareholder proposals, proxy voting, private placements, disclosure issues, investment advisers, and stock buybacks has been cited in every major media outlet, by members of Congress in the House and Senate, and by leading securities and corporate governance scholars. He holds two bachelor’s degrees (in economics and applied computational math) from the University of Washington, and a masters and Ph.D. in finance from Rice University, and a J.D. from NYU Law where he was a Furman Academic Scholar.
Research
Working Papers
Shining Light on Retail Private Markets
(Job Talk Paper)
- AALS Section on Law & Economics (2024 Invited).
Institutional Investor Deliberation
with Jonathon Zytnick and Nadya Malenko
- Presented at American Law and Economics Association (2023) Junior Scholars Featured Papers Panel, NYU Law Institute for Corporate Governance Spring Roundtable (2023*).
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 Scheduled).
Competition for Retail Order Flow and Market Quality
with Dermot Murphy (SSRN)
- Policy: Cited in SEC’s Proposed Rule on Order Competition.
- Presented at Microstructure Exchange (2022*), UBC Summer Finance Conference (2023*).
The Index-Fund Dilemma: An Empirical Study of the Lending-Voting Tradeoff
with Joshua Mitts and Haley Sylvester (SSRN)
- Revise and Resubmit, J. Legal Stud.
- Covered in Columbia Blue Sky Blog, Money Stuff (Bloomberg), The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch
- Policy: Speech by SEC Chair Lee on share lending and proxy voting disclosure, Statement by SEC Commissioner Crenshaw on the lending-voting tradeoff.
- Presented at JCLAW (2020*), Harvard Empirical Law and Finance Workshop (2021*), Columbia Law and Economics Workshop (2021*).
Vestigial Tails? Floor Brokers at the Close in Modern Electronic Markets
with Dermot Murphy (SSRN)
- Revise and Resubmit, Mgmt. Sci.
- Covered in The Wall Street Journal, Money Stuff (Bloomberg), The Economist.
- Policy: Cited in Congressional Research Service Report IN11447.
- Presented at University of Illinois Chicago (2020*), Rice University (2020), SEC (2020*), The Microstructure Exchange (2020) (recording) (slides), IEX ARC (2020), NBER Big Data Conference (2020), Microstructure Online Seminars Asia Pacific (2021), Western Finance Association (2021), European Finance Association (2021).
Publications
Regulatory Arbitrage and the Persistence of Financial Misconduct, 74 Stan. L. Rev. 737 (2022), with Colleen Honigsberg and Robert Jackson (SSRN, PDF)
- 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”
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
- Conducted research showing that the largest fund managers lack clear proxy-voting guidelines on lobbying and political spending disclosure—yet overwhelmingly vote against these proposals.
- Selected coverage: Bloomberg
- Featured: HLS Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation
Proposed Rules Governing Proxy Advisors and Shareholder Proposals
- Conducted research showing how the proposed rules would affect the resubmission of shareholder proposals, and the effect of including shareholder proposals on firm value (see Data Appendix).
- Received support from Chair Waters and Ranking Member Brown, and over 60 leading corporate governance scholars.
- Selected coverage: CNBC, Politico, Bloomberg (Money Stuff), Recode Decode (Podcast), The Economist, Capitalisn’t (Podcast)
- Featured: HLS Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, Chicago Booth Stigler Center ProMarket Blog
Rules Governing Investment Advice (Regulation Best Interest)
- Conducted research showing that the proposed interpretation of the fiduciary standard was related to higher rates of conflicted advice.
- Received support from prominent legislators including Senators Warren, Booker, Speaker Pelosi, Chair Waters, and a dozen bipartisan securities law professors.
- House Passed Amendment 78 to H.R. 3351 over concerns from Chair Maxine Waters about lowering the fiduciary standard.
- Cited in Warren letter to DOL Secretary in anticipation of DOL’s proposed replacement for the Fiduciary Rule.
- Selected coverage: Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Money Stuff
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
- Conducted research showing that the market reacts negatively to insider selling after stock buyback announcements in reponse to a letter from Senator Chris Van Hollen.
- Letter, Data Appendix
- Cited in legislation proposed by Senator Tammy Baldwin, and Petition to SEC
- Selected coverage: CNN, Washington Post, CNBC, Fox Business, The Atlantic, Bloomberg Businessweek
Intentional Access Delays, Market Quality, and Price Discovery: Evidence from IEX Becoming an Exchange
- Conducted research showing that slowing down trading reduced trading costs in some stocks. (SSRN)
- Covered in The Wall Street Journal (1) (2), Globe and Mail, Traders Magazine, TabbFORUM, Financial Times, Fast Company (Video)
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
| NYU School of Law | Last Updated: 2023-12-05 |
| 40 Washington Sq. South | 📧: edwin.hu@nyu.edu |
| New York, NY 10012 | 🌐: edwinhu.github.io |