Difang Huang

Welcome to my homepage!

• My research focuses on behavioral and experimental economics and finance, with special interest in (1) the risk management of financial intermediation, and (2) human-algorithm interaction in decision-making.

Employment

• Assistant Professor, Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2024-.
• Visiting Assistant Professor, Centre for Financial Innovation and Development, University of Hong Kong, 2025-2026.
• Research Assistant Professor, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Hong Kong, 2022-2024.

Representative Publications

(1) Risk management of financial intermediation

• A Tale of Two Banks: When Credit Loss Models Meet Economic Crises (w. Chen Chen)
  • Journal of Accounting Research, 2025+.
  • [SSRN] [Internet Appendix]
• Gender differences in reactions to loan collection mechanisms: A large-scale natural field experiment (w. Leo Bao)
  • Journal of Financial Intermediation, 2025+.
  • [SSRN] [Internet Appendix]
• Effects of lockdowns in shaping socioeconomic behaviors (w. Leo Bao, Jingcun Cao, Lata Gangadharan, and Chen Lin)
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 2024, 121(43): e2405934121.
  • [SSRN] [Replication Files]
  • [Mirage News] [National Tribune] [PHYS] [World Education News]
• How did small business respond to unexpected shocks? Evidence from a natural experiment in China (w. Muzi Chen, Yunlong Wang, Xiaoguang Yang, and Ye Zhou)
  • Journal of Corporate Finance, 2024, 84: 102528.
  • [SSRN] [LSE Business Review]
• Shadow Banking in a Crisis: Evidence from FinTech During COVID-19 (w. Zhengyang Bao)
  • Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 2021, 56(7): 2320-2355.
  • JFQA High Impact Article
  • [SSRN] [Internet Appendix]
  • [JFQA COVID Symposium] [Patrick T. Harker’s Speech] [VoxChina Article] [VoxChina Video]

(2) Human-algorithm interaction in decision-making

• A large-scale comparison of divergent creativity in humans and large language models (w. Haipeng Shen, Brian Uzzi, and Dawei Wang)
  • Nature Human Behaviour, 2025+.
  • [PsyArxiv] [Replication Files]
  • [ScienMag]
• Can Artificial Intelligence Improve Gender Equality? Evidence from a Natural Experiment (w. Leo Bao and Chen Lin)
  • Management Science, 2026, 72(1), 474-494.
  • Special Issue on The Human-Algorithm Connection
  • [SSRN] [Internet Appendix]
  • [LSE Business Review] [VoxDev]
• Measuring gender and racial biases in large language models: Intersectional evidence from automated resume evaluation (w. Jiafu An, Chen Lin, and Mingzhu Tai)
  • PNAS Nexus, 2025, 4(3): pgaf089.
  • [arXiv] [Replication Files] [VoxDev]
• Reform scientific elections to improve gender equality (w. Zhengyang Bao)
  • Nature Human Behaviour, 2022, 6(4): 478-479.
  • [SSRN] [Replication Files]
  • [Elephant in the lab] [Times Higher Education]

Professional Services:

• Editorial Board Member: Journal of Business Research / China Finance Review International