Jian Yang

Jian Yang
Chair of Center • Research Director • Professor of Finance
J.P. Morgan Center for Commodities • Finance

BUSB 4106

Jian Yang is a J.P. Morgan endowed chair and Research Director at the J.P. Morgan Center for Commodities and founding director of the Center for China Financial Research at the University of Colorado Denver. He is also a Research Fellow of the National Institute of Financial Research at Tsinghua University in China and previously held positions of visiting fellow at the People’s Bank of China and visiting scholar at St. Louis Fed. Before his joining CU Denver, he worked as an assistant professor/associate professor at Prairie View A&M University in Texas.

Yang is recognized as one of the most prolific authors in finance during the past 50 years based on core finance journal publications, and one of 15 commodities friendly professors in the world. He has published about 70 refereed journal articles on such journals as Management Science, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Econometrics, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, and Journal of Banking and Finance.

Yang's research has been reprinted in a four-volume major finance work reference book (together with classics of several Nobel Prize Laureates on the same volume), won a number of research awards including Asian Finance Association PBFJ Best Paper Award, cited in many textbooks and policy reports of international organizations and governments around the world, and featured by over 50 media outlets including New York TimesReutersThe Washington PostDaily Mail (UK), CNBCUS News and World Report, and Economic Daily(Chinese). His research has also been presented at European Central Bank, FDIC, People’s Bank of China, EIA, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, and CSRC. He has served on the editorial boards for ten academic journals, including top journals on derivatives and real estate. Yang’s research-based comments also have been published by ReutersFinancial TimesBloombergChina Daily and other media outlets in dozens of countries and in multiple languages.

Education

PhD Agricultural Economics, Finance Minor, Texas A&M University

MS Finance, Texas A&M University

MA International Economics, Nankai University

BS Chemistry, Nankai University

Areas of expertise

International Finance

Futures Markets

Commodities

Empirical Asset Pricing

Real Estate

Publications and presentations

As of  March 2022, the standard count of (all-inclusive) citations was over 5,100 cites based on Google Scholar and well over 1,500 cites based on Web of Science, with a Google Scholar h-index of 38.  Cites by other researchers include citations from such journals as Journal of Financial EconomicsReview of Financial StudiesManagement Science, Journal of the American Statistical Association,  Journal of Monetary EconomicsJournal of Econometrics, Review of Finance, Operations ResearchJournal of Banking and FinanceJournal of Financial MarketsJournal of International Money and Finance, Journal of Empirical Finance,  Real Estate Economics, and many textbooks in finance, econometrics, real estate, commodity markets, and optimization (including two textbooks authored by a Nobel Laureate and a chair professor at Harvard, respectively).  These papers have also been cited in policy reports by  IMFWorld Bank, Bank of International Settlements, World Trade OrganizationOrganization for Economic Co-operation and DevelopmentEuropean Commission, US International Trade Commission, UK Scottish Government, Government of India, among others, and also frequently by policy research working papers of major international organizations (e.g., IMF, World Bank, BIS, FAO) and central banks and other financial regulators (or in a few cases other national government agencies) in dozens of countries around the world (e.g., the US, EU, China, Japan, France, Italy, Canada, Brazil, Chile, Thailand, Austria, Finland, Philippines, Chile, Colombia, Czech, Greece).  

One of these research papers has been reprinted in a four-volume major finance work reference book. Some research papers have been featured by more than 50 newspapers/TVs/magazines/radios in English and in Chinese, such as New York TimesReutersThe Washington PostCNBCDaily Mail (UK)US News and World Report. Yang’s commentaries and analysis on commodities (and to a lesser extent China's finance and economy) are published and quoted by news media reaching out to dozens of countries and in several languages (e.g., English, Chinese, Spanish, Indonesian, Italian), including Reuters, Financial Times, BloombergForbesChina Daily (global & US editions, European Weekly & African Weekly), World Finance magazine (UK), Australian Financial ReviewRT TV network (Russia), People's Daily (Chinese), Economic Daily (Chinese), etc.

Yang was also invited to deliver research presentations at European Central Bank, FDIC, People’s Bank of China (Central Bank of China), China Securities Regulatory Commission, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, US EIA, many universities in the US and overseas, and several futures exchanges and major financial institutions.

Please refer to the CV for specifics

Awards

Laube Community Impact Award, The Business School, University of Colorado Denver, 2018

Listed in Marquis Who’s Who in America, 2011 (65th edition), 2014 (68th edition), 2015 (69th edition), 2016 (70th edition)

Ranked 31st (ties) worldwide  in  the inaugural Real Estate Academic Leadership author rankings based on the number of publications in top three real estate journals during 2011-2015 (“The Real Estate Academic Rankings for 2011-2015,” by Jesse Saginor, Journal of Real Estate Literature, 2015, p.253-257)

Best Service Award, Chinese Economists Society (US), 2015

Best Manuscript Award, American Real Estate Society, 2013

Pacific-Basin Finance Journal Best Paper Award, Asian Finance Association, 2013

15 Commodity-Friendly Professors in the world (by CommodityHQ.com), 2013

Outstanding Research Award, The Business School, University of Colorado Denver, 2013, 2009

Best Paper Award (1st Prize), Global Chinese Real Estate Congress, 2010

Ranked 744th (top 4 percentile among 17,601 finance academics) in the world based on the number of publications in 26 core finance journals over the past 50 years from 1959 to 2008 (“Most Prolific Authors in the Finance Literature: 1959 to 2008,” by Philip L. Cooley and Jean L. Heck at SSRN)

Excellence in Research Award, College of Business, Prairie View A&M University, 2006, 2004, 2002

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Distinguished Paper Award, Academy of International Business (US Southwest), 2003

Best Paper in International Finance Award, Southwestern Finance Association, 2003

T.K. Ann Outstanding Paper Award in International Trade, Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC), P. R. China, 2002

Best Paper in International Finance Award, Southwestern Finance Association, 2002

Tom Slick Dissertation Research Fellowship, Texas A&M University, 1999

Affiliations

Editorial Board: Journal of Futures Markets (2013-present), Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, etc.

Associate Editor: Journal of Commodity Markets (2015-present)

Visiting Fellow: People's Bank of China (Central Bank of China), 2016

Visiting (Chair) Professor: Nankai University (2004-2016), Sun Yat-Sen University (2005, 2008-2011), Zhejiang University (2014-2016), Xiamen University (2008)

Visiting Scholar: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, May 2006

Research Fellow: National Institute of Financial Research, Tsinghua University (jointly with all major financial regulators in China), 2018 – present; Center for Hospitality and Real Estate Research, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012-2015

Faculty Affiliate: Cornell Institute of China Economics Research, Cornell University, 2018– present

Chief Academic Adviser: Shanghai Futures Institute, Tongji University (jointly with Shanghai Futures Association), 2018 – present

Referee: over 200 times for 64 journals (as of 2016)