[4] Tsiang's academic contributions include work on the demand for money, monetary theoretic foundations of the monetary approach to the balance of payments, an early statement of the relation between spot and forward exchange rates, and the role of money in trade balance stability.

However, together with his lifelong friend and colleague Ta-Chung Liu, also a professor at Cornell University, gave practical advice to the Republic of China on economic policy.

Together they advocated against central planning and for creating an environment that encouraged private enterprises to compete on world markets.

Tsiang advocated the unification of multiple exchange rates and the devaluation of the New Taiwan dollar from artificially overvalued levels.

Understanding that Taiwan at that time had cheap labor relative to the world market, he advocated for a liberalization of interest rate controls to promote savings and produce funds for investment for small enterprises, and proposed low tariffs to encourage exports.