Cao is a professor of finance and serves as academic director of  the Finance MBA at Cheung Kong. He earned a Ph.D. in finance in 1995 from the University of California at Los Angeles and a Ph.D. in pathology in 1991 from Yale University.

Before joining Cheung Kong, he taught at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at San Diego, Ohio State University, Carnegie Mellon and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Cao's research has been published in journals including the Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies and Journal of Financial Economics.

Cao is the editor of International Financial Review and sits on the editorial board of Annals of Economics and Finance and China Financial Review.

He also received numerous awards for teaching and research excellence, including nominations for the Smith-Breeden Award in 1998 and 2000 for the best paper published in Journal of Finance.

• "Fear of The Unknown: The Effects of Familiarity on Financial Decisions," with Bing Han, David Hirshleifer and Harold H. Zhang, forthcoming at Review of Finance.
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• "Portfolio Performance Measurement: A No Arbitrage Bounds Approach," with Dong-Hyun Ahn and Stephane Chretien, European Financial Management，2009, 15 (2):298-339
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• "Differences of Opinion of Public Information and Speculative Trading in Stocks and Options," with Hui Ou-Yang, Review of Financial Studies, 2009, 22(1):299-335; presented at 2004 CIFC, 2005 AFA, 2005 WFA, and won the third place best paper award at 2004 CIFC and best paper award most relevant to practitioners at 2005 WFA.
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• "Differences of Opinion and Speculative Trading in Stocks and Options," H. H. Cao and Hui Ou-Yang, 2008, Review of Financial Studies.
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• “Inventory Information,” H. H. Cao, Martin Evans and Rich Lyons, Journal of Business, 2006, 79：325-364.
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• “Model Uncertainty, Limited Market Participation and Asset Prices,” H. H. Cao, Tan Wang and Harold H. Zhang, Review of Financial Studies, 2005，1219 - 1251.
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• “The Dynamics of International Equity Market Expectations,” Michael J. Brennan, H. H. Cao, Norman Strong and Xinzhong Xu, Journal of Financial Economics, 2005，257-288.
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• “Product Strategy for Innovators in Markets with Network Effects,” Sun, B., Xie, J. and H. H. Cao, Marketing Science, 2004, 243-254.
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• “Sidelined Investors, Trading-Generated News, and Security Returns,” H. H. Cao, J. Coval and D. Hirshleifer, Review of Financial Studies, 2002, 15, 615-648.
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• “Imperfect Competition Among Informed Traders,” K. Back, H. H. Cao and G. Willard, Journal of Finance, 2000, 5, 2117-2155. Nominated for Smith-Breeden Prize.
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• “The Effect of Derivative Assets on Endogenous Information Acquisition and Price Behavior in a Rational Expectations Equilibrium,” H. H. Cao, Review of Financial Studies, 1999, 12, 131-163.
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• “International Portfolio Investment Flows,” Michael J. Brennan and H. H. Cao, Journal of Finance, 1997, 52, 1851-1880, Nominated for Smith-Breeden Prize. Best paper award in emerging market research at NFA. Reprinted in International Library of Critical Writings in Financial Economics, Edited by Richard Roll.
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• “Information, Trade, and Derivative Securities,” Michael J. Brennan and H. H. Cao, Review of Financial Studies, 1996, 9, 163-208.