2025 Fall Finance Conference
Conference date: Oct. 3-4, 2025
Recommended accommodation: Renaissance Dallas Richardson Hotel
UT Dallas 2025 Fall Finance Conference Program
(Presenter – 20 Minutes; Discussant – 15 Minutes; Q&A – 10 Minutes)
Conference hotel: Renaissance Dallas Richardson Hotel
Address: 900 E Lookout Dr, Richardson, TX 75082. (972) 367-2000
Conference room: JSOM II Room 11.214 & 218
Friday, October 3, 2025
Bus to School of Management leaves the hotel at 1:15pm CST
Registration, with refreshments and beverages
Welcome Remarks (2:00pm-2:15pm): Dean Hasan Pirkul
Session 1 (2:15-3:45pm): Chris Reilly
The Biodiversity Protection Discount – Golnaz Bahrami (Penn State), Matthew Gustafson (Penn State), Eva Steiner (Penn State)
Discussant: William Xiong (SUNY Binghamton)
Haven’t We Seen This Before? Return Predictions from 200 Years of News – AJ Chen (UBC), Gerard Hoberg (USC), Miao Ben Zhang (USC)
Discussant: Sean Myers (Wharton)
Coffee Break (3:45pm-4:00pm) – Lounge (across conference room)
Brains on Display: PhD Poster Showcase
Session 2 (4:00-5:30pm): Chris Mace
Real Effects of Financial Conditions: How Does Provider Financial Health Affect Opioid Prescription? – Isil Erel (OSU), Shan Ge (NYU), Pengfei Ma (SMU-Singapore)
Discussant: Jordan Nickerson (Washington)
Corporate Finance Through Loyalty Programs – Dan Luo (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Discussant: Jiasun Li (George Mason & Yale)
Gather & Dine: Conference Evening
Reception (6:00 -6:45pm): Fogo de Chão | Sunroof Terrance
Conference Dinner (6:45pm -9:30pm): Fogo de Chão | Grand Dinner Room
5908 Headquarters Drive; Plano, Texas 75024
A bus will take guests to the dinner venue from School of Management at 5:45pm, and take guests back to the hotel from the restaurant at 9:30pm.
Saturday, October 4, 2025
Bus to School of Management leaves the hotel at 8:30am CST
Breakfast (8:45-9:30am) – Lounge (across conference room)
Session 3 (9:30-11:00am): Alejandro Rivera
Monetary Policy and Local Fiscal Policy – Kerry Siani (MIT), Jinyuan Zhang (UCLA)
Discussant: Elena Loutskina (Virginia Darden)
Contagious Deregulation – Jakub Hajda (HEC Montreal), Joseph Kalmenovitz (Rochester), Billy Xu (Rochester)
Discussant: David Dicks (Baylor)
Coffee Break (11:00am-11:20am)
Brains on Display: PhD Poster Showcase
Session 4 (11:20-12:50pm): Xinwei Li
Data, Markups, and Asset Prices – Alexandre Corhay (Toronto), Kejia Hu (Oxford), Jun E. Li (Warwick), Jincheng Tong (Toronto), Chi-Yang Tsou (Manchester)
Discussant: Simona Abis (Colorado)
Good Inflation, Bad Inflation, and the Dynamics of Credit Risk – Diego Bonelli (Banco de España), Berardino Palazzo (Federal Reserve Board), Ram Yamarthy (Federal Reserve Board)
Discussant: Zhaogang Song (Johns Hopkins)
Lunch (12:50-2:30pm) – Lounge (across conference room)
Brains on Display: PhD Poster Showcase
Session 5 (2:30-4:00pm): Huaizhi Chen
Democratizing Private Markets: Private Equity Performance of Individual Investors – Cynthia Balloch (LSE), Federico Mainardi (Chicago), Simon Oh (Columbia), Petra Vokata (OSU)
Discussant: Kristy Jansen (USC)
Market Power and the Bitcoin Protocol – Alfred Lehar (Calgary), Christine A. Parlour (Berkley)
Discussant: Donghwa Shin (UNC)
Coffee Break (4:00-4:20pm)
Brains on Display: PhD Poster Showcase
Keynote Speech (4:20-5:15pm): Clemens Sialm (UT Austin)
Drives, Drinks & Good Times!
TopGolf Reception: (6:00-8:00pm)
8787 Park Lane Dallas, TX 75231
A bus will take guests to the dinner venue from School of Management at 5:30pm, and take guests back to the hotel from TopGolf at 8pm.
PhD Posters
Forecast Dispersion and Price Impact of Macroeconomic News – Samia Badidi (Tilburg)
Understanding the Role of Certificates of Deposits in Bank Finance – Nicolas de Souza (Rochester)
The Rise in Insurance Costs for Commercial Properties: Causes, Effects on Rents, and the Role of Owners – Minjoo Kim, Prateek Mahajan, Zirui Wang (UT Austin)
AI Washing – Boyuan Li (Florida)
Left-digit bias in the FinTech era – Spencer Stone (Kentucky)
Collateral and Bank Monitoring – Tong Zhao (KU Leuven)