Topic: Seasonal Inventory Leverage

Date: September 9, 2026 (Wednesday)

Time: 14:00 - 15:00

Venue: T1-302-R1

Language: English

Please register by scanning the QR code in the attached poster.

Abstract: We posit a theory of a firm with a seasonal output-price and output-inventory building to offer a neoclassical underpinning for well-known links between seasonalities in stock and firm variables. Our theory suggests that seasonal firms build output inventories toward their high-price seasons, prepaying production costs and creating inverse seasonalities in their expected returns. Critically, a lower ability to build inventories dampens the return seasonality, pointing to inventory building as our mechanism. Empirically supporting our theory, we show that seasonal firms build inventories toward their high-sales seasons, produce lower mean returns when they carry seasonally higher inventories, and underlie several anomalies.

Biography: Hening Liu is Professor of Finance at Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS), The University of Manchester, where he also serves as Director of the PhD Programmes in Accounting and Finance.

Prof. Liu's research spans theoretical and empirical asset pricing, financial econometrics, corporate finance, and portfolio choice. Prof. Liu's research has been published in leading journals, including the Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of Econometrics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and Management Science. Prof. Liu has presented his research at major international conferences, including the WFA, EFA, and CICF.

Prof. Liu regularly serves as a referee for leading journals, including the American Economic Review, Journal of Finance, Journal of Political Economy, Review of Financial Studies, Management Science, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, among others.