Gen Li

Finance Ph.D. student

The University of British Columbia (UBC)

My name is Gen Li. I am a Finance Ph.D. candidate at The University of British Columbia (UBC). Before joining UBC, I was a Pre-Doc research associate at Yale University and assisted finance professors with their research projects. I finished my master’s degree at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

Download my resumé.

Interests

Empirical asset pricing
Investor behavior
Household finance
Corporate finance

Education

PhD in Finance
The University of British Columbia (UBC)
Pre-Doctoral Research Associate
Yale University
Master's degree
University of California San Diego (UCSD)

Working Projects

Gen Li

September, 2021 First-year Summer Paper Housing, Household Finance

Chinese Overseas Buyers in U.S. Housing Markets

Using around 8 million housing transactions in California from 1994 to 2017, I find that Chinese overseas buyers (COB) earn 4.5% lower returns than other cash buyers, controlling for market timing and location factors. The large gap in housing returns is driven by purchase prices instead of sale prices. Controlling cash payment benefits, property, and market timing, COB will pay 8-12% higher prices than other cash buyers. By implementing DID event study and two-way fixed effects DID models, I find that 10% overpayment can be explained by the lack of investment opportunities arising from home-purchase restrictions in China. The remaining overpayment can be due to cultural differences. Combining IV and DID estimation, I explore the influence of COBs on U.S. local housing prices.