Dr Yang Gao

About me:

Yang Gao is a Lecturer in Finance at the University of Exeter Business School. Prior to joining Exeter, he served as a Teaching Fellow in Finance at the University of Leicester Business School. He received his PhD in Finance from the University of Birmingham. 

His research lies at the intersection of empirical corporate finance, corporate governance, and ESG, with a particular focus on how regulatory shocks, information environments, and stakeholder institutions influence corporate behaviour and real economic outcomes. His research examines a broad set of ESG-related issues, including climate policy shocks, pay inequality, stakeholder voice, workplace safety, product quality failures, consumer behaviour, and corporate disclosure. His research primarily exploits natural experiments and large-scale, granular datasets to identify causal effects.

His research has been presented at leading international conferences, including the American Finance Association (AFA) Annual Meeting, China International Conference in Finance (CICF), and the Financial Management Association (FMA) Annual and European Conferences.

Selected Working Papers:

1. “Inequality Grows in Silence: The Impact of Newspaper Closures on CEO-Worker Pay Disparity”, with Jie Chen and Cheng (Colin) Zeng

• R&R at The Accounting Review
• On the 2024 CICF program

2. “Do Consumers Care about Pay Inequality? Evidence from Household Purchasing”, with Konstantinos Bozos, Jie Chen, Xuan Tian, and Jiayi Yuan 

• On the 2025 CICF and 2026 AFA program

3. “Free Speech as Stakeholder Governance: Anti-SLAPP Laws and Product Quality Failures”, with Jie Chen, Mengxi Li, Xuan Tian, and Jiayi Yuan