Rate My Professor Hengjie Ai

Hengjie Ai is the Robert M. Steiner Chair in Business and Professor of Finance in the Department of Finance, Investment, and Banking at the Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he has served as Department Chair since 2023. A leading scholar in the Business & Economics field, he joined the university in January 2022. Prior to this, Ai was Associate Professor of Finance at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota from 2016 to 2021, and Assistant Professor there from 2012 to 2016. He began his academic career as Assistant Professor of Finance at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business from 2006 to 2012. His academic background includes a PhD in Economics from the University of Minnesota in 2006, an MA in International Economics from Renmin University of China in 2000, and a BA in World Economy from Wuhan University in 1993. Ai has held visiting positions such as Fama-Miller Research Visitor at the University of Chicago in spring 2019 and Visiting Associate Professor at the Wharton School of Business in spring 2019.

Ai's research focuses on financial economics, macroeconomics, and economic theory, particularly asset pricing, corporate finance, macroeconomic theory, monetary policy announcements, quantitative dynamic agency, and financial market frictions. His influential publications appear in premier journals, including "Identifying Preference for Early Resolution of Uncertainty from Asset Prices" (American Economic Review, 2025, with R. Bansal, H. Guo, A. Yaron), "A Quantitative Model of Dynamic Moral Hazard" (Review of Financial Studies, 2023, with D. Kiku, R. Li), "The Cross-Section of Monetary Policy Announcement Premium" (Journal of Financial Economics, 2022, with L. Han, X. Pan, L. Xu), "Asset Pricing with Endogenously Uninsurable Tail Risks" (Econometrica, 2021, with A. Bhandari), "A Unified Model of Firm Dynamics with Limited Commitment and Assortative Matching" (Journal of Finance, 2021, with D. Kiku, R. Li, J. Tong), and "Risk Preferences and the Macroeconomic Announcement Premium" (Econometrica, 2018, with R. Bansal). He has earned honors such as the SFS Finance Cavalcade best paper award in asset pricing (2017), China International Conference in Finance best paper award (2013), Midwest Finance Association Presidential address (2020), and Outstanding Teaching Award for the Master of Finance program at Minnesota (2020). Ai serves as Associate Editor for Management Science since 2023, President of the Midwest Finance Association (2021-2022), and has organized and chaired sessions at major conferences including the American Finance Association and Western Finance Association meetings.