北大数字金融Workshop第六讲 |Yongxiang Wang, SAIF

时间：2026年5月12日周二 下午2：00至3：30

Tuesday May 12, 14:00-15:30 pm Beijing time

地点：

线下：北京大学国家发展研究院承泽园校区245教室

线上：Zoom 会议（会议号: 813 0969 5445，密码: 676067）

主讲人：汪勇祥 Yongxiang Wang

主持人：胡佳胤 Jiayin Hu

Title: Privatization and Military Performance: Evidence from the Re-nationalization of Military Grain Transport in Ming China, 1392–1597

Abstract: This paper examines whether privatizing military logistics improves wartime performance. We study the Ming dynasty’s 1492 reform that re-nationalized the transport of military grain previously outsourced to salt merchants under the kaizhong system. Using newly collected guard-level data on 488 guards and 424 battles against foreign invasions during 1392–1597, we find that re-nationalization significantly reduced battle win rates at treated guards. The decline is larger where state transport faced greater coordination costs due to bureaucracy, where merchants had more scope to adjust routes flexibly, and where merchant-sponsored frontier farming was more feasible. The negative effect is also stronger in wars more dependent on logistics, including campaigns during the grain-scarcity season and those involving large troop deployments. Anti-corruption reforms partly mitigated these losses. The findings highlight the military costs of bureaucratic and decentralized state logistics.

主讲人简介：

Dr. Yongxiang Wang is a Chair Professor of Finance, Deputy Dean and Ph.D. Program Faculty Director at the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He previously held a tenured position as an Associate Professor of Finance at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California.

Professor Wang's research interests span empirical corporate finance, political economy, organizational economics, behavioral economics, and corporate strategy in emerging markets, with a primary focus on the Chinese economy and financial markets. He has published over 20 high-quality articles in prestigious international journals, including the Journal of Political Economy, American Economic Review, Review of Economic Studies, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Administrative Science Quarterly, Management Science, Strategic Management Journal, and Journal of Accounting and Economics.

Professor Wang serves (or served) as an Associate Editor at Review of Economics and Statistics, Review of Finance, Management Science, Journal of Corporate Finance, and China Economic Review. He is also a frequent referee for top-tier journals in Economics, Finance, Accounting, Management, Sociology, Political Science, and Science. His research projects have received support from NSF grants in the USA, the United Kingdom, Australia, and China. His work has been featured in Science, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, The Economist, The New York Times, and China Daily. Professor Wang was awarded the SAIF Faculty Academic Research Award in 2023.