Zhi Da

Zhi Da is the Howard J. and Geraldine F. Korth Chair in Finance and Professor of Finance at the University of Notre Dame, Mendoza College of Business, Department of Finance. He completed his Ph.D. in Finance at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management (2006), preceded by an M.Sc. in Financial Engineering from the National University of Singapore (2001) and a B.B.A. with First-Class Honors (1999) from the same institution. Holding editorial roles at Journal of Finance, Management Science, Review of Financial Studies and several other top journals, he is a leading voice in empirical finance research.

Education

• Ph.D. in Finance, 2006 – Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
• M.Sc. in Financial Engineering, 2001 – National University of Singapore
• B.B.A. (1st Class Honors), 1999 – National University of Singapore

Research Interests

Zhi Da’s scholarship sits at the intersection of asset pricing, behavioral finance, and market microstructure. He investigates how investor attention, institutional trading, liquidity frictions, and information flows jointly determine the cross-section of expected returns. His work delves into retail margin trading, the role of pension-fund flows in exchange-rate dynamics, the informational content of SEC filings, and the efficiency of short-selling mechanisms. By combining large-scale data analytics, textual analysis, and structural modeling, he uncovers novel predictors of returns ranging from presidential approval ratings to real-time attention measures.

Recent projects explore fractional trading’s impact on price efficiency, hedging demand as a driver of intraday momentum, and the hidden effort problem in delegated portfolio management. These themes collectively advance our understanding of limits to arbitrage and the formation of extrapolative beliefs.

Publication Landscape

Spanning 2025 back to 2009, his 15 most recent articles in Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Management Science, Journal of Financial Economics, and Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis converge on three broad motifs: (1) micro-level trading frictions—liquidity costs, margin requirements, and short-selling constraints; (2) macro-finance linkages—exchange rates, fiscal policy, and global capital flows; and (3) information economics—attention allocation, media analytics, and regulatory disclosures. The collective evidence demonstrates that seemingly small trading or informational frictions aggregate into large, persistent cross-sectional return predictability.

Honors and Awards

• 2017 William F. Sharpe Award for Best Paper, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis
• Lead-article distinctions in Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, and Management Science
• Featured coverage in SmartMoney and CNBC

Teaching & Mentorship

At Notre Dame’s Mendoza College, Professor Da teaches Investments (undergraduate and MBA) and Fixed Income Securities, integrating cutting-edge research insights into the curriculum. While specific advisees are not listed, his extensive co-author network (22+ recurring collaborators) attests to a vibrant mentoring environment.

Laboratory & Data Resources

He publicly distributes the NAT (Net Arbitrage Trading) dataset, a stock-quarter panel of arbitrage positions used in Chen, Da & Huang (2019). This resource has become a standard tool for researchers studying arbitrage capital movements.