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Xu Lu
Assistant Professor of Finance and Business Economics
Foster School of Business, University of Washington
My research centers on financial intermediation. I am especially drawn to understanding how asset demand frictions shape the structure and stability of intermediaries and affect the transmission of monetary policy. In deposit markets, my papers highlight that depositor behavior gives rise to banks' market power, with new implications for aggregate monetary pass-through and financial stability. In equity markets, my work shows how institutional rebalancing and the structure of active management help explain puzzles in asset pricing and monetary transmission.
I received my PhD from Stanford GSB in 2023. Prior to that, I received bachelor's degrees from Tsinghua University in 2017.
Curriculum vitae (May 2026).
Link to Google Scholar, SSRN.
Work
Accepted Papers
Monetary Transmission and Portfolio Rebalancing: A Cross-Sectional Approach (2026),
with Lingxuan Wu. Paper, Slides.
Journal of Financial Economics, accepted.
Remeasuring Scale in Active Management (2026),
with Shiyang Huang, Yang Song, and Hong Xiang. Paper.
Review of Financial Studies, forthcoming.
Working Papers
Banking on Inattention,
with Lingxuan Wu; updated: Apr 2026.
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VoxEU article: "Banking on inattention: When deposits hedge or amplify interest rate risk."
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Supported by the NBER Financial Frictions and Market Risk Initiative and AWS Cloud Credit for Research.
- Winner of the 2026 ESRB Ieke van den Burg Prize and 2026 WRDS Outstanding Paper Award in Financial Institutions.
The Dynamics of Deposit Flightiness and its Impact on Financial Stability,
with Kristian Blickle, Jane Li, and Yiming Ma; updated: Mar 2026.
Review of Financial Studies, revise and resubmit.
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Liberty Street Economics article: "The rise in deposit flightiness and its implications for financial stability."
Tracing the Impact of Payment Convenience on Deposits: Evidence from Depositor Activeness,
with Yang Song, and Yao Zeng; updated: Sep 2025.
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Knowledge at Wharton article: "How bank depositors are becoming more alert."
The Political Economy of China's Housing Boom,
with Adam Zhang; updated: Mar 2023.
Discussions
Deposit Competition Beyond Rates,
Matteo Benetton, Ben Hébert and Tim McQuade, FIRS 2026.
Earnings Information Spillovers and Depositor Contagion,
Qi Chen, Itay Goldstein, Rahul Vashishtha and Benda Yin, SFS Cavalcade 2026.
The Response of Debtors to Rate Changes,
Virginia Gianinazzi, Andreas Fuster, Andreas Hackethal, Philip Schnorpfeil and Michael Weber, MFA 2026.
Steering a Ship in Illiquid Waters: Active Management of Passive Funds,
Naz Koont, Yiming Ma, Lubos Pastor and Yao Zeng, FIRS 2023.
Discussions
Deposit Competition Beyond Rates, by Benetton, Hébert and McQuade
Deposits: Sticky or Flighty, by Basten, Cucic and Schepens
Earnings Information Spillovers and Depositor Contagion, by Chen, Goldstein, Vashishtha and Yin
The Response of Debtors to Rate Changes, by Gianinazzi, Fuster, Hackethal, Schnorpfeil and Weber
Steering a Ship in Illiquid Waters: Active Management of Passive Funds, by Koont, Ma, Pastor and Zeng
Teaching
Teach
Finance 423: Banking and the Financial System, Winter 2024
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