Manish Jha

Biography · CV · Photo | Google Scholar · SSRN | mjha@gsu.edu

I am an Assistant Professor of Finance at Georgia State University. I hold a Ph.D. in Finance from Washington University and a Bachelor's degree in Technology from IIT Kanpur. Prior to my doctoral studies, I worked in sovereign bond research and options trading. I am deeply grateful for the support from Human Resource India, Kendriya Vidyalaya, MPS Foundation, and Super30. Feel free to reach out to me at mjha@gsu.edu, or connect with me on BlueSky, LinkedIn, and Twitter/X. Thanks for stopping by!

What's New? I'm co-organizing the GSU-MS AI & FinTech conference in Atlanta (October)—let me know if you're interested! I'll also be at Fidelity Quantitative Research (May), FIRS Seoul, Oxford (June), Mumbai (June-July), and NBER SI Forecasting & Empirical Methods Boston.

Research

Research Interests

Artificial Intelligence, Corporate Governance, Financial Technology, Machine Learning, Text Analysis

Working/Revision Papers

1. The Politicization of Social Responsibility

with Todd Gormley and Meng Wang
NBER, SSRN | Harvard CorpGov, Promarket, VoxEU

Revise and resubmit at Journal of Finance
Institutions support for socially responsible proposals varies based on state politics (donkey-elephant).

2. A Shared Interest: Do Bonds Strengthen Equity Monitoring?

with Todd Gormley
NBER, SSRN | Columbia Law Blog, ECGI, Promarket

Revise and resubmit at Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis
Institutions (puppy) monitors firms more when it holds firms' bonds.

3. ChatGPT and Corporate Policies

with Jialin Qian, Michael Weber, and Baozhong Yang
arXiv, NBER, SSRN, Video | Becker Friedman, Chicago Booth Review, Harvard CorpGov, VoxEU

Finalist for John L. Weinberg/IRRCi Best Paper Award 2024
Second Place Dr. Richard A. Crowell Memorial Prize 2023
ChatGPT could predict corporate policies, sometimes better than the market and forecasters.

4. Harnessing Generative AI for Economic Insights

with Jialin Qian, Michael Weber, and Baozhong Yang
arXiv, SSRN | Chicago Booth Review, GSU News

We (owl) could use generative AI to predict economic indicators.

5. ESG Metrics in Executive Compensation: a Multitasking Approach

with Vikas Agarwal, Juan Pedro Gomez, and Kasra Hosseini
Draft Soon

ESG metrics in compensation contracts are accompanied with lower performance sensitivity for financial metrics.

Published/ Forthcoming Papers

1. Does Finance Benefit Society? A Language Embedding Approach

with Hongyi Liu and Asaf Manela
RFS, SSRN | Data, Podcast, Video | Bloomberg (pdf), Promarket

Review of Financial Studies, forthcoming
Capitalist countries (bull) discuss finance in a more positive context.

2. Do Activists Align with Larger Mutual Funds?

JBF, arXiv, SSRN | Podcast, Video | Promarket

Journal of Banking and Finance, Volume 173, Number 107402, April 2025
Activist (dog) discuss issues that aligns well with larger institutions (elephant).

3. Natural Disaster Effects on Popular Sentiment Toward Finance

with Hongyi Liu and Asaf Manela
JFQA, SSRN | Podcast, Video | Bloomberg (pdf), Washington Post

Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Volume 56, Number 7, November 2021, pp. 2584–2604
People (animals) have negative sentiment towards finance (bank) after uninsured disasters.

Teaching

Georgia State University

FI 8092: AI and Machine Learning Applications in Finance (2025)

FI 4020: Financial Analysis and Introduction to Loan Structuring (2021-2025)

Washington University in St Louis

Teaching Assistant

Empirical Methods in Finance (PhD Level, 2019)

Advanced Corporate Finance: Financing, Mergers and Acquisitions, Valuation (2017–2021)

Asset Pricing: Investment Theory, Options & Futures (2017)

Resources

Data

Finance Sentiment - Sentiment toward finance in an annual panel spanning British English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, and US English from 1870 to 2009. Reference: Jha, Manish and Liu, Hongyi and Manela, Asaf, Does Finance Benefit Society? A Language Embedding Approach, forthcoming in the Review of Financial Studies.

Conferences

AI Revolution in Finance, April 25–26, 2025 | Atlanta

GSU-MS AI & FinTech, October 3-4, 2025 | Atlanta

Miscellaneous

EB-1B Advice - slides on my experience with outstanding professor visa.

Text Data in Finance - slides from a three hour PhD class.

Finance JM Advice - presentation for PhD students, explaining 2020 finance job market experience.

Business PhD Admissions - explains the admission process for prospective students.

Procurement Basics - basics of refinery equipment procurement.

Press

The Politicization of Social Responsibility
NBER, November 12, 2024 [PDF]

Featured Working Papers - Politicization of Social Responsibility
NBER, October 4, 2024 [PDF]

The politicisation of social responsibility
Centre for Economic Policy Research VoxEU, September 30, 2024 [PDF]

The Politicization of Social Responsibility
Harvard Corporate Governance Forum, September 4, 2024 [PDF]

A New Tool for Predicting Economic Growth
Chicago Booth Review, March 11, 2025 [PDF]

Seizing Generative AI to Forecast Economic Trends
Georgia State News Hub, Ground News, MSN.com, Phys.org, January 13, 2025 [PDF]

October 2024's Top Papers in Quant Finance, Including AI & LLM in Finance
ZanistaAI, November 18, 2024 [PDF]

ChatGPT Bests Wall Street in Predicting Corporate Spending
AI Street, October 3, 2024 [PDF]

LLMs can measure and identify corporate policies
Chicago Booth Review Fall 2024 Magazine, September 21, 2024 [PDF]

What AI Sees in the Market (That You Might Not)
Chicago Booth Review, September 3, 2024 [PDF]

AI Can Discover Corporate Policy Changes
Chicago Booth Review, May 8, 2024 [PDF]

A ChatGPT Use Case for the Board of Directors
OODA Loop, March 13, 2024 [PDF]

AI in Banking and Finance
Law and Technology Resources for Legal Professionals, February 29, 2024 [PDF]

22nd Annual Dr. RA Crowell Memorial Prize
AI Journal, Business Wire, PanAgora, Yahoo Singapore, February 27, 2024 [PDF]

Generative AI in Finance
Journal of Banking & Finance Call for Papers, 23 January, 2024 [PDF]

ChatGPT and corporate policies
Centre for Economic Policy Research VoxEU, August 11, 2023 [PDF]

ChatGPT Finds Capex Plans in Earnings Calls
CFO.com, August 11, 2023 [PDF]

ChatGPT and Corporate Policies
Becker Friedman Institute, August 10, 2023 [PDF]

ChatGPT and Corporate Policies
Harvard Corporate Governance Forum, August 9, 2023 [PDF]

Featured Working Papers - Spillovers from Bond Holdings
NBER, October 4, 2024 [PDF]

Selection Algos, Better Deals, and a Shared Interest
The Investment Ecosystem, June 24, 2024 [PDF]

Bonds Improve Institutional Investors’ Equity Monitoring
Chicago Booth Promarket, May 10, 2023 [PDF]

Do Bonds Affect Equity Monitoring?
Columbia Law School Blog, April 12, 2023 [PDF]

Barking Up the Right Tree: How Shareholder Activists Raise Issues to Placate Large Mutual Funds
Chicago Booth Promarket, December 16, 2020 [PDF]

通过一个世纪数百万份数据测量公众的“金融情绪”及其影响
Weixin 学说平台, April 24, 2025 [PDF]

Citi Traders Didn’t Know the Rules
Bloomberg Opinion, December 4, 2024 [PDF]

Can the Finance Industry Be Trusted This Time?
Bloomberg Opinion, Washington Post, August 10, 2020 [PDF]

Do People Think Finance Benefits Society?
Chicago Booth Promarket, July 28, 2020 [PDF]