Nianzu Xiong

Godfrey Tyler Scholarship in Economics

Joining us from: Beijing, China

DPhil in Economics (2023)

My name is Nianzu Xiong, and I am a doctoral student in Economics. 

Before coming to Oxford, I majored in Mathematics and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania as an undergraduate. I graduated as Penn's top Economics major and then received my MPhil degree from Cambridge. 

At Oxford, my research interests are in game theory, corporate finance, and cryptocurrency. Broadly speaking, most of my previous research has sought to answer the following question: How can people achieve the monopolistic outcome in competitive environments? I have analysed how firms compete and cooperate under complex shareholding structures, how buyers and sellers manipulate markets, and how candidates compete strategically in elections. Recently I have been focusing on the economics of cryptocurrency. I am interested in the optimality of token financing, token pricing problems in ICOs, and regulations of RWAs and stablecoins.  

I have taught Firms and Markets for MBA students, Economics for MSc in Financial Economics students, and Finance and Microeconomics for undergraduate PPE and E&M students. 

I am incredibly honoured to receive this generous scholarship from St Cross college, and I look forward to meeting fellow scholars.