Edwin Hu

Edwin “Eddy” Hu is an associate professor at the University of Virginia School of Law. His scholarship is focused on the empirical analysis of corporate and securities law and the structure of financial markets. Before joining the Law School, Hu was a senior economic policymaker, advising the White House’s National Economic Council and as chief economist to SEC Commissioner Robert J. Jackson Jr.

Hu’s research studies gaps in market structure and financial regulation. His work on the regulation of financial advice shows how advisers who pose the most risk to investors seek out lax legal regimes to avoid accountability. Hu’s study of institutional investors’ voting behavior identified how some funds seek share lending revenue rather than vote in contested corporate matters. And his examination of stock-exchange activity during the COVID-19 pandemic raised questions about the effects of outdated market structure on today’s investors.

Hu’s research has helped produce significant policy reforms, including the SEC’s recent institutional voting transparency initiative and its proposal to increase competition for retail stock orders. His current policy initiatives include a joint effort he co-chaired with faculty from the Wharton School to facilitate accountability in initial public offerings in the wake of recent Supreme Court rulings on that subject. Hu’s work has been published in leading academic journals, such as the Journal of Financial Economics and the Stanford Law Review, and featured prominently across major periodicals including The Atlantic, Bloomberg, The Economist, The New York Times, The Washington Post and the front page of The Wall Street Journal.

He holds two undergraduate degrees, in economics and applied computational mathematics, from the University of Washington, a master’s and Ph.D. in finance from Rice University and a J.D. from the New York University School of Law, where he was a Furman Academic Scholar and a fellow at the Institute for Corporate Governance & Finance.