Gary (Gang) Tian

Professor of Finance | Macquarie University

Overview and Career

Gary Tian is Professor of Finance in the Department of Applied Finance at Macquarie University, Australia, where he also serves as Editor of Accounting and Finance. Prior to joining Macquarie in 2016, he held professorships at the University of Wollongong (2001–2015) and Deakin University (2015–2016), where his leadership roles included Director of Research, Director of HDR, and founding director of research centres focused on China’s economy and business environment.

His earlier academic appointments include positions at the University of Western Sydney, Flinders University, and La Trobe University. Before entering academia in Australia, Professor Tian lectured at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and worked in export sales at SINOCHEM, one of China’s largest state-owned trading corporations, giving him first-hand experience of China’s economic reform era.

Research Interests

Professor Tian’s research is situated at the intersection of corporate finance and accounting, with particular interests in ESG and business ethics, political connections, social identity in finance, CEO compensation, bank lending and informal finance, corporate innovation, and investment efficiency. Much of his work draws on the institutional context of China’s transitional economy to examine how political, cultural, and regulatory forces shape corporate decision-making and market outcomes.

Publications and Research Output

Professor Tian has published close to 100 peer-reviewed articles in leading international journals, including Management Science, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Review of Accounting Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, European Accounting Review, and the British Accounting Review.

Research Impact and Recognition

Professor Tian’s citation profile evidences strong and sustained scholarly influence. His Google Scholar record shows an h-index of 47 with over 9,000 citations, and his Scopus h-index stands at 34. He currently holds four Web of Science Highly Cited Papers (top 1% by citations globally), spanning research on green credit performance, green innovation, political connections and corporate investment, and CEO hometown connections and trade credit.

According to ScholarGPS 2025 (prior five years, no self-citations, weighted), Professor Tian ranks in the top 0.18% of over 10.9 million scholars worldwide for research impact, and in the top 0.33% within the Finance discipline (rank 110 of 33,477 finance scholars). He is also listed among the top 25 most prolific authors in the Journal of Corporate Finance, and received the Emerald Citations of Excellence Award in 2015, recognising one of the most highly cited papers across the top 300 ABDC-listed journals.

He has received multiple best paper and top cited article awards from journals and international conferences, including the FMA Asian Conference, the Asian Finance Association, and the China Finance Review International Conference. His research has been supported by competitive grants from the Australian Research Council (ARC Discovery Project) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, among other funding bodies.

Media and Policy Engagement

Professor Tian’s research has attracted broad recognition beyond academia. His work has been featured or cited by major media and policy outlets including Forbes, Reuters, the Financial Times, Duke University’s FinReg Blog, the World Bank, the OECD, the Asian Development Bank Institute, the ifo Institute, IDOS, ESCAP, NBER, and ProMarket at the Stigler Center, Chicago Booth. He has delivered keynote addresses at leading forums, including the Shanghai Forum at Fudan University, the CCGAR Academic Symposium, and the International Conference on Financial Development and Stability.

Supervision, Editorial Roles, and Professional Service

Professor Tian has supervised more than 25 PhD students to completion, many of whom have progressed to academic positions at universities in Australia, China, and the Middle East, or to senior roles in industry and government.

He currently serves as Deputy Editor of Accounting and Finance and holds editorial board appointments at Economics and Politics, Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Journal of Risk and Financial Management, and China Finance Review International. He has served as an expert assessor for the Australian Research Council and as Secretary and Board Member of the Asian Finance Association.

Professor Tian holds a PhD in Economics and a Master of Applied Finance from Macquarie University, and a Master in Economics and a Bachelor of Science from Shanghai.