Will Cong (on leave)

Biography

Will Cong is the Rudd Family Professor of Management, professor of finance, and founding director of the FinTech Initiative at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. He is also a finance editor at the Management Science, faculty scientist at the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies & Contracts (IC3), research associate at the NBER, founder of multiple international research forums, a former Kauffman Junior Fellow, Poets&Quants World Best Business School Professor, and 2022 Top 10 Quant Professor. Cong was previously a faculty member at the University of Chicago after earning his PhD in finance and MS in statistics from Stanford University, and a master of arts in physics jointly with a bachelor’s in math and physics from Harvard University.

Cong’s research spans financial economics, information economics, fintech, digital economy, and entrepreneurship. He and his coauthors have pioneered the introduction of goal-oriented search and interpretable AI for finance, laid the foundations of tokenomics (covering categorization of tokens, cryptocurrency pricing, central bank digital currencies/payment systems, and optimal token monetary policy design), analyzed centralization issues and dynamic incentives in blockchains and DeFi, and developed data analytics for detecting market manipulation and better fintech regulation, among others.

He has won numerous best paper prizes and research grants and was invited to deliver keynote speeches at numerous international conferences and world-renowned institutions. Cong advises industrial leaders in fintech and quantitative investment, as well as various government and regulatory agencies.

Education

PhD Stanford University, 2014
MS Stanford University, 2013
MA Harvard University, 2009
BA Harvard University, 2009

Research

• Cong, Lin William; Grenadier, Steven; Hu, Yunzhi. "Dynamic interventions and informational linkages"Journal of Financial Economics. 135.1 (2020): 1-15
• Cong, Lin William; He, Zhiguo. "Blockchain Disruption and Smart Contracts"Review of Financial Studies. 32.5 (2019): 1754-1797
• Cong, Lin William; Gao, Haoyu; Ponticelli, Jacopo; Yang, Xiaoguang. "Credit Allocation under Economic Stimulus: Evidence from China"Review of Financial Studies. 32.9 (2019): 3412-3460
• Cong, Lin William. "Timing of Auctions of Real Options"Management Science. 66.9 (2020): 12pp
• Cong, Lin William; Lee, Charles; Qu, Yuanyu; Shen, Tao. "Financing Entrepreneurship and Innovation in China"Foundations and Trends in Entrepreneurship. 16.1 (2020): 1-64
• Azarmsa, Ehsan; Cong, Lin William. "Persuasion in Relationship Finance"Journal of Financial Economics. 138.3 (2020): 818-837
• Cong, Lin William; He, Zhiguo; Li, Jiasun. "Decentralized Mining in Centralized Pools"Review of Financial Studies. 34.3 (2021): 1191-1235
• Cao, Sean; Cong, Lin William; Han, Meng; Hou, Qixuan; Yang, Baozhong. "Blockchain Architecture for Auditing Automation and Trust Building in Public Markets"IEEE Computer. 53.7 (2020): 20-28
• Cong, Lin William; Tang, Ke; Wang, Jingyuan; Zhang, Yang. "Deep Sequence Modeling: Development and Applications in Asset Pricing"Journal of Financial Data Science. 3.1 (2021): 28-42
• Cong, Lin William; Li, Ye; Wang, Neng. "Tokenomics: Dynamic Adoption and Valuation"Review of Financial Studies. 34.3 (2021): 1105-1155