Xiaowen Peng

Dr. Natalie (Xiaowen) Peng is a Lecturer in Accounting at the University of Queensland Business School within the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law. She completed her Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Queensland in 2017, with a thesis titled "Information Cost and Member Choice in the Australian Superannuation Industry," and holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours). As a dedicated educator, she has taught financial and management accounting courses to large cohorts at UQ and led innovations in accounting education. Her academic career at UQ Business School includes her current lecturing position following her doctoral studies.

Peng's research focuses on superannuation, retirement savings, financial governance, the production, dissemination, and interpretation of information in financial markets, disclosure regulation, and cognitive biases in decision-making and their consequences. In 2017-2018, she was awarded an AFAANZ research grant for the project "Information Costs and Superannuation Choices in Australia," which produced the working paper "Simplified Retail Financial Products Disclosure and Investor Choice: Evidence from Australian Retirement Saving Funds," presented at the UQ Accounting research day and FIRN annual conference. Notable peer-reviewed publications include "Investor overconfidence and stock price crash risk" (Journal of Accounting Literature, 2025, with Chowdhury et al.), "Switching between superannuation funds: Does performance and marketing matter?" (Pacific Basin Finance Journal, 2020, with Alpert and Hsu), and "Predicting stock returns with implied cost of capital: a partial least squares approach" (Journal of Financial Markets, 2020, with Hoang et al.). She is a regular media commentator on superannuation policy, gender gaps in retirement savings, and financial security for women, contributing to ABC News, SBS Mandarin, The Conversation, and the Sydney Morning Herald. Recognized as a media expert on topics including Modern Slavery Disclosure, Readability, Superannuation, and Textual Analysis, her work influences public and policy discussions on these issues.

Professional Email: x.peng@business.uq.edu.au