Mingzhu TAI joined HKU after receiving her Ph.D in Business Economics from Harvard University in 2017. Before that she received her Master and Bachelor degrees in Finance from Tsinghua University.
Mingzhu’s research interests mainly include consumer and household finance, financial intermediation and general corporate finance. She is currently working to understand the relationship between banks, real estate markets, financial regulations, and credit activities by consumers and businesses.
Take the recent study by Chen Lin and Mingzhu Tai from the HKU Business School, conducted with collaborators from the University of California, Berkeley and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Their paper addressed a fundamental worry for almost everyone during the pandemic: Money. Specifically, they examined how people in the U.S. saved money in response to COVID-19.
為什麼在疫情期間會有大量存款匯入銀行？我們發現，銀行分行若位於2019冠狀病毒病感染率較高的地區，它們的存款利率較位於感染率較低的地區的銀行分行（即便是隸屬同一家銀行集團）為低。信貸提取、國家政策（如薪資保護計劃）以及避險措施並非導致這些銀行分行之間出現存款利率變化的原因。證據顯示，2019冠狀病毒病感染率較高的地區與當地民眾對其就業前景和收入減少的焦慮有連帶關係，導致民眾減少支出和增加銀行存款。
