Xiaoya (Sara) Ding is an assistant professor of finance in the School of Management. Her research interests are primarily in international finance, empirical corporate finance, and asset pricing. Her work has been published in highly ranked peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Banking and Finance and presented at numerous finance conferences and seminars in North America, Europe, and Asia. She is the recipient of best-paper awards at the Asian Finance Association Conference and China Goes Global Conference. Some of her recent research explores questions such as how housing prices influence firms' costs of equity capital and payout policy in the U.S. and how free float affects stock liquidity in international markets. With a particular interest in the Chinese market, she examined the role of state ownership in shaping the relative informational advantage of local and foreign investors in Chinese stock markets and the spillover effect of cross-border mergers and acquisitions on earnings quality of Chinese firms.