Yi Zhou

Professor Yi Zhou is a Full Professor of Finance at San Francisco State University (SFSU). Her research interests span Empirical Asset Pricing, Derivatives, Credit and Default Risk, Volatility, Art and Finance, Climate and Weather Risk, as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI), including Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs).

Professor Yi Zhou's publication record comprises eleven (11) published papers, three (3) of which are published in the Journal of Financial Economics (JFE) (2016 and 2017) and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (JFQA) (2019), both of which the Financial Times designates as a top-fifty journal used in business school research rankings. Both journals are among two (2) of the top-four (4) journals in finance and on the list of the twenty-four (24) leading journals used for the University of Texas at Dallas top-100 business school research rankings.

Her eight (8) other papers are published in the Journal of Banking and Finance (JBF) (2013), Journal of Empirical Finance (JEF) (2015), European Journal of Finance (EJF) (2017), Journal of Financial Markets (JFM) (2022), Journal of Cultural Economics (JCE) (2022), Financial Management (FM) (2023), Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting (2025) and Global Finance Journal (2026).

Professor Yi Zhou's papers have received numerous awards, including the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) Research Award (2009 and 2013), the American Association of Individual Investors Award (2013), and the Center for Hedge Fund Research (CHFR) Award (2009). Her paper, "AI Infrastructure, Firm Value, and Expected Stock Returns," received the Best Paper Award at the 2nd Modern Finance Conference in Warsaw in September 2025. She also received the Publication Incentive Award of LFCoB for three consecutive years (2020–2021, 2021–2022, and 2022–2023), as well as the Exemplary Research Award for two consecutive years (2016–2017 and 2017–2018). In 2017, she was awarded the highly selective Development of Research and Creativity (DRC) Grant, funded by the California State University (CSU) Chancellor's Office. She was honored with the title of Lam Larsen Distinguished Research Professor for the 2025–2027 term.

Professor Yi Zhou is in the top 10% of authors on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) by total new downloads and by all-time downloads. Her papers have been on the SSRN's Top 10 download list in various fields.