2026年江苏省研究生“经济管理前沿研究方法”暑期学校学术讲座——顾弦教授

时间：2026年7月21日上午9:30-11:30

地点：东校区财经科学馆学术报告厅

题目：AI as Co-founder: GenAI for Entrepreneurship

摘要：This paper studies whether, how, and for whom generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) facilitates firm creation.Our identification strategy exploits the November 2022 release of ChatGPT as a global shock that lowered start-up costs and leverages variations across geo-coded grids with differential pre-existing AI-specific human capital. Using high-resolution and universal data on Chinese firm registrations by the end of 2024, we find that grids with stronger AI-specific human capital experienced a sharp surge in new firm formation---driven entirely by small firms, contributing to 6.0\% of overall national firm entry. Large-firm entry declines, consistent with a shift toward leaner ventures. New firms are smaller in capital, shareholder number, and founding team size, especially among small firms. The effects are strongest among firms with potential AI applications, weaker financing needs, and among first-time entrepreneurs. Overall, our results highlight that GenAI serves as a pro-competitive force by disproportionately boosting small-firm entry.

主讲人：顾弦教授（杜伦大学）

Xian Gu joined Durham University Business School in June 2020 as an Associate Professor in Finance. Prior to this, she was an Associate/Assistant Professor in Finance at School of Finance of Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE) in Beijing, Visiting Lecturer at Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania. Before these, she was a post-doctoral research fellow at the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania.

Xian’s research interests are corporate finance, financial intermediation, FinTech, law and finance. She has published academic papers in Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of International Economics, and Annual Review of Financial Economics, among others. Her papers have won the Best Paper Awards at conferences including AsianFA (2019); CFRC (2019); CICF (2021); CFRC (2021).

Xian is currently the Deputy Director of the Centre for Banking, Institutions, and Development (CBID) at Durham University Business School. She currently serves as an Associate Editor in Journal of Financial Stability.