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Dr. Yang Liu joined The University of Hong Kong in 2017. He is recognized as a National-level Young Talent. He is the founding co-director of the Wealth Management Academy and the founding director of the Master of Wealth Management Program. He serves as the associate editor of Management Science and Economic Letters.
His research interests span international finance and macroeconomics. He published in top academic journals such as Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of International Economics, Management Science, and won numerous research awards. He is the principal investigator or co-investigator of an NSFC Excellent Young Scientist Program, an NSFC Major Program, an NSSFC Major Program, an RGC Theme-Based Research Grant, an NSFC Emergency Program, an RGC Early Career Scheme, and multiple RGC General Research Funds. He was a visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund and a research associate at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and Bachelor of Economics from Fudan University. His research and policy analysis have been widely featured in media such as the Xinhua, Financial Times, Associated Press, AFP, VOA, China Daily, SCMP, HKEJ, Ming Pao, Wen Wei Po, Ta Kung Pao, HK01, Hong Kong TVB, Master Insight, RTHK, Tencent, Sina, NetEase, Sohu, Toutiao, Yahoo, Phoenix News, Economy Chosun, among others.
For details, please visit www.yangliuresearch.com.
Hong Kong is making a major move to become Asia’s premier gold hub. With the launch of a new gold clearing system (HKPMCC) and a new gold price benchmark (HAU), Prof. Yang Liu from HKU Business School highlights three core shifts taking shape in his interview with China Daily.
Since the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, with the local banking system as its anchor, granted the first batch of stablecoin issuer licences in April this year, expectations have been high for the banking sector’s participation in stablecoin issuance.
As the digitalization of money becomes increasingly mature worldwide, a significant new development is emerging in the stablecoin market. According to reports, over 100 financial and technology institutions, including Visa and Stripe, have joined forces to form the Open Standard alliance, which is expected to launch the US dollar stablecoin Open USD later this year.
Lack of comovement between consumption differentials and real exchange rates is a traditional indicator of a disconnect of foreign exchange markets from economic fundamentals. We present novel empirical evidence for the disconnect between the volatilities, as opposed to the levels, of these variables. The volatility correlations are below one, but they are larger than the level correlations. We discuss the economics of volatility disconnect anomaly in settings with complete and incomplete markets and provide an explanation of our empirical findings based on international risk sharing of expected growth and volatility news shocks.
In April 2026, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) granted the first batch of stablecoin issuer licences to The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) and Anchorpoint Financial Limited (Anchorpoint). HSBC is one of Hong Kong’s largest banks and also holds the special status of a note-issuing bank.
In April 2026, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) issued stablecoin licenses to HSBC and Anchorpoint, signaling the imminent breakthrough of Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) stablecoin issuance. This represents a significant milestone, marking the official launch of stablecoins as a critical on-chain financial infrastructure in Hong Kong.
Do real assets protect against inflation? Stocks’ core inflation betas are negative, while their energy betas are positive. Currencies, commodities, and real estate mostly hedge against energy inflation, but not core inflation. These hedging properties are reflected in the prices of inflation risks: only core inflation carries a negative risk premium, and its magnitude is consistent within and across asset classes, uniquely among macroeconomic risk factors. Energy inflation has become more procyclical and volatile since the 1990s, which helps explain the time-varying correlation between stock and bond returns. A two-sector New Keynesian asset pricing model accounts for these facts quantitatively.
On August 1, 2025, Hong Kong’s “Stablecoin Ordinance” will take effect, marking China’s gradual participation in the stablecoin market and its exploration of how to use Hong Kong, an offshore financial center, to promote the internationalization of the RMB through stablecoins. To answer this question, we need to understand, rationally and objectively, the development logic of offshore RMB stablecoins in the context of the current heightened market sentiment.
This paper proposes a conditional asset pricing model that integrates environmental, social, and governance (ESG) demand and supply dynamics. Shocks in the demand for sustainable investing represent a novel risk source, characterized by diminishing marginal utility and positive premium. Green assets exhibit positive exposure to ESG demand shocks, hence commanding higher premia. Conversely, time-varying convenience yield leads to lower expected returns for green assets. Moreover, ESG demand shocks have positive contemporaneous effects on unexpected returns, contributing to large positive payoffs in the green-minus-brown portfolio over extended horizons. The model predictions align closely with evidence on return spreads between green and brown assets, further reinforcing the apparent gap between realized and expected spreads.
