Alex Hsu

Alex Hsu is a Professor of Finance at Georgia Tech who says Atlanta’s growth and strong economy are a factor.

“People are moving here,” Hsu said. “People are spending money. These are signs of the healthy economy. But at the same time, that's going to make things more expensive.”

Many Americans aren’t sure why interest rates were raised and how it can bring down inflationary prices and set the economy back on track. We sat down with two Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business faculty experts to find out what the rise in interest rates means for the current economy and how it will affect average citizens. Sudheer Chava, Alton M. Costley Chair, professor of Finance, and director of the Quantitative & Computational Finance program, and Alex Hsu, associate professor of Finance, provided their answers to some of the most salient questions around interest rates.

And the U.S. is not alone. Other countries are also experiencing inflation, but the U.S. is experiencing it more severely because of its strong economic recovery and complex supply chain, according to Alex Hsu, Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business associate professor of finance. We sat down with Hsu to learn more.

Alex Hsu, assistant professor of Finance has published a working paper “The Supply Channel of Uncertainty Shocks and the Cross-Section of Returns: Evidence From the COVID-19 Crisis” along with colleagues Lorenzo Bretscher, London Business School, Peter Simasek, Scheller College Ph.D. student, and Andrea Tamoni, Rutgers Business School.

The paper examines the impact of COVID-19 on equity valuations and asks two questions; how does this sudden increase in economic uncertainty caused by COVID-19 affect these valuations and what are the channels through which COVID-19 impacts firm-level outcomes?