Rate My Professor Kaiwen Leong

Associate Professor Kaiwen Leong is affiliated with the Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics in the Griffith Business School at Griffith University. He earned both his Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from Princeton University, completing his doctorate in 2011. Prior to his appointment at Griffith, Dr. Leong held the position of Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. In addition, he has contributed research expertise to numerous Singapore government agencies, such as the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Committee on the Future Economy, the Ministry of Education A-Level Syllabus Development Committee, and the Singapore Prison Service.

Dr. Leong's research interests include public economics, financial economics, labor economics, economics of crime, public policy, and finance. His scholarly output has been published in top-tier journals, including the Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of the European Economic Association, Economic Journal, and Economic Inquiry. Prominent publications include "Borrowing in an Illegal Market: Contracting with Loan Sharks" (Review of Economics and Statistics, 2025, co-authored with Kevin Lang, Huailu Li, and Haibo Xu), "Countervailing Conflicts of Interest in Delegation Games" (Games, 2023, with Saori Chiba), "Re-examining investor sentiment and stock returns: A replication and extension of Baker and Wurgler (2006)" (Economic Inquiry, 2025), and studies on peer effects in educational decisions among youth offenders and the fragility of social norms, presented at the NBER Summer Institute on Economics of Crime (2025). He serves as an editor for the Singapore Economic Review and Economics Open. At Griffith University, he is a member of the Academy of Excellence in Financial Crime Investigation and Compliance, participates on the Programs Committee, and convenes the course Applied Financial Crime Investigation and Compliance (3225AFE). His contributions offer insights into policy issues in crime economics and financial markets.