Thought Leadership

Key Takeaways Net-zero portfolios (NZPs), managing over $130 trillion USD in assets, align financial performance with climate goals. These portfolios reward firms that actively reduce emissions while excluding those lagging behind, driving market incentives for decarbonization. The study introduces distance to exit (DTE), a forward-looking metric that measures a firm’s risk of exclusion from NZPs based on its carbon footprint and decarbonization efforts. Firms with higher DTEs—seen as safer from exclusion—tend to have higher valuations but lower expected returns, highlighting the market’s pricing of carbon-transition risks. DTE serves as both a risk measure and a catalyst for action, incentivizing firms to accelerate decarbonization to remain in NZPs, while enabling portfolios to achieve up to 95% reductions in carbon intensity without sacrificing sector diversification. Source Publication: 

Key Takeaways The agricultural export value of Brazil has quadrupled over the last two decades due to rising global demand. Brazil’s agricultural export boom drives deforestation: between 1997 and 2019, trade-induced agricultural expansion led to the loss of 3.6 million hectares of forest. Trade-induced deforestation causes severe health consequences: it results in over 700,000 premature deaths, primarily from cardio-respiratory diseases linked to pollution from deforestation in upwind areas. The economic cost of these deaths is estimated at $513 billion USD—about 18% of Brazil’s total agricultural export value during the same period. These findings highlight the negative health impacts of trade-induced deforestation and the resulting regional inequality, because mortality costs and economic benefits are not always shared by the same populations. Source Publication: 

Key Takeaways This study develops a theoretical framework to explore how carbon taxes and financial market tools (e.g., sustainability-linked loans and bonds) interact in reducing carbon emissions. Carbon taxes remain the most effective tool for achieving emission reductions and increasing welfare but are often politically constrained. Carbon-contingent financing provides an alternative incentive for standard agents to adopt green technologies, but its effectiveness depends on the financial resources of environmentally motivated agents who are funding the transition. Although carbon taxes and market-based solutions can coexist, carbon-contingent financing may undermine political support for taxes, potentially reducing their overall effectiveness in addressing emissions. The model’s predictions emphasize the need for a balanced climate strategy, whereby carbon taxes and financial market solutions complement each other by targeting different regions or sectors with distinct characteristics. Source Publication: 

While computer languages may sound alien to economics, I aim to showcase that good programming skills are conducive not limited to economic research, it can also open up endless career possibilities for you in the business world.

As a teacher, I will push myself to understand the expectations of local employers' and the market dynamics of Hong Kong.

As a science person, I am impressed by our students' strong business acumen. But as a teacher, other than teaching them how to use quantitative tools to make scientific claims, I also hope that I can encourage them to continue to stay inquisitive about the world and apply their classroom knowledge for the betterment of the society.

A prediction market is a type of speculative market created for the purpose of making forecasts. Wins and losses are tied to a specific event (such as a U.S. and Israeli airstrike on Iran) or parameter (such as whether the stock market will rise or fall tomorrow), and the final outcome determines the monetary value obtained.

Looking around the world, waste sorting and recycling have become an unavoidable part of urban governance. Over the past 10 years, the HKSAR Government has, through the “GREEN@COMMUNITY” programme and the “GREEN$” points system, built a community recycling network across Hong Kong, encouraging citizens to integrate recycling into their daily lives.

Hong Kong is a highly developed economy, with nearly 94% of its gross domestic product (GDP) generated by the services sector. However, under the current structure of the services sector, there exists a “dual‑structure trap”: on one hand, high value‑added industries that offer limited employment opportunities; on the other, mass‑market industries with relatively low value added.

Artificial intelligence is evolving from a “copilot” into an “intelligent agent,” and this leap will have an unprecedented impact on the marketing industry.In the past few years, we’ve witnessed how AI, as an efficiency tool, has optimized the marketing value chain: customer service bots have reduced operating costs, generative AI (AIGC) has enabled large‑scale content production, and machine learning has made consumer insights more precise.

China’s economy is currently in a period of deep structural transformation. Despite the potential of its 1.4 billion-strong domestic market, the contraction of the wealth effect triggered by the real estate correction, together with a high household savings rate (exceeding 43% in 2024) and weak consumer confidence, is constraining the release of domestic demand.

Large language models are increasingly permeating core domains such as knowledge production, business analysis, legal consulting, and medical decision-making. A problem that was once often regarded as a mere technical flaw is rapidly becoming a new focal point in the global technology race: the “hallucination” of large language models—namely, the tendency of a model, when lacking any factual basis, to still produce highly “confident,” fluent, yet false answers.

In a recent interview with RTHK, Prof. Heiwai Tang, Associate Dean at HKU Business School, stated that the Five-Year Plan plays an important role in driving Hong Kong's economic transformation and diversification.

Prof. Heiwai Tang, Associate Dean of HKU Business School, recently shared his insights with Ta Kung Pao on the need for a formal Five-Year Plan with a 'concrete action list' for Hong Kong. Prof. Tang stated that Hong Kong’s traditional "small government" mindset and reliance on short-term fixes are no longer sufficient to tackle "deep-seated structural challenges" such as housing affordability, an ageing population, wealth disparity, and limited upward mobility for youth.

A prediction market is a type of speculative market created for the purpose of making forecasts. Wins and losses are tied to a specific event (such as a U.S. and Israeli airstrike on Iran) or parameter (such as whether the stock market will rise or fall tomorrow), and the final outcome determines the monetary value obtained.