Wenting Ma
Assistant Professor
Wenting Ma is an economist whose research lies at the intersection of corporate finance and labor economics. Ma's work examines how firms' decisions about ownership, financing and technology investment shape workers' careers, wages, and economic inequality.
As a Special Sworn Status researcher with the U.S. Census Bureau, she combines confidential employer-employee matched data with large-scale administrative and proprietary datasets to study how firms and workers jointly shape economic outcomes. Her research has been published in the Journal of Financial Economics, the Review of Corporate Finance Studies, and the Strategic Management Journal. Her recent Journal of Financial Economics article, "M&As, Technological Change and Inequality," received the journal's Best Paper Award. Her paper in the Strategic Management Journal ranks among the journal's ten most-cited articles. In 2025, she received the Rising Scholar Award from the Society for Financial Studies.
Education
Academic Appointments
Research Interests
Awards, Honors, and Recognition
JFE Best Paper Award, 2026
Rising Scholar Award, Society for Financial Studies, 2025
College Outstanding Teaching Award Nominee, UMass Amherst, 2022-2025
Conference Co-organizer, Early Career Women Finance Conference, 2023
Best Paper Award at 82nd AOM Annual Meeting, 2022
Distinguished Teaching Award Finalist, UMass Amherst, 2022
ADVANCE Collaborative Research Seed Grant, UMass Amherst, 2020
Teaching Interests
- Advanced Corporate Finance
- Fundamental Principles of Financial Management (MSBA & MF)
- Corporate Finance (MF)
Media, Industry, and Public Impact
“When a Company Dominates Its Market, Do Employees Benefit?” Harvard Business Review, 2019. https://hbr.org/2019/07/when-a-company-dominates-its-market-do-employees-benefit
“Thy Bust, My Boom: Micro Evidence on Small Firms' Tech Evolution after Dot Com Bubble Burst” National Affairs, 2024. https://www.nationalaffairs.com/blog/detail/findings-a-daily-roundup/labor-forces
Selected Working Papers / Current Research
Bai, John (Jianqiu) and Li, Chen and Ma, Wenting, Thy Bust, My Boom: Micro Evidence on Small Firms' Tech Evolution after Dot Com Bubble Burst (November 18, 2024). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4974712 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4974712
Gao, Janet and Ma, Wenting and Xu, Qiping, Access to Financing and Racial Pay Gap Inside Firms (May 12, 2025). Working Papers 23-36, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau., HKU Jockey Club Enterprise Sustainability Global Research Institute - Archive, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4359015 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4359015
Selected Publications
Ma, W., Ouimet, P., & Simintzi, E. (2025). Mergers and acquisitions, technological change, and inequality. Journal of Financial Economics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2025.104136
Ma, W. (2024). Employer dominance and worker earnings in finance. The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, 13(4), 1030–1079. https://doi.org/10.1093/rcfs/cfae017
Genin, A., Ma, W., Bhagwat, V., & Bernile, G. (2023). Board experiential diversity and corporate radical innovation. Strategic Management Journal, 44(11), 2634–2657. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3499
(Genin and Ma contributed equally as lead authors)