The Fall Finance Conference, an annual gathering at the Naveen Jindal School of Management, attracted a record number of research paper submissions this year, a sign, one conference coordinator said, that the academic gathering is gaining recognition and respect.
“We received 200 papers this year, the largest number we’ve ever received,” said Dr. Harold Zhang, Finance and Managerial Economics Area coordinator, who along with Dr. Vikram Nanda, O.P. Jindal Chair of Finance, coordinated the conference. “I believe that number shows that people are talking about the conference and awareness of it is increasing.”
About 70 educators representing many of the top universities in the United States and Canada, as well as a Federal Reserve Board member, attended the one-day conference. Presented by JSOM’s Finance and Managerial Economics Area and now in its third year, the conference brings together researchers, scholars and students to promote their research, share their work and build relationships with others in their field.
This year, eight of the submitted papers were chosen for presentation, comments by a discussant and follow-up discussions among conferees.
“The papers were selected based on whether the research question was interesting and whether the paper successfully addressed the research question,” said conference session chair Dr. Xiaoxiao Tang, a JSOM assistant professor of finance and managerial economics.
A lot of new research ideas always come up during the conference, Tang said. “I have several new ideas to work on based on the conversations I had with some attendees, and I believe other people also do.”
The featured speakers represented the University of Colorado, the Federal Reserve Board, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Houston, Indiana University, the University of North Carolina, the University of Toronto and the University of Utah.
“The conference enhances the visibility of The University of Texas at Dallas, the Jindal School and the finance faculty among the academic finance community,” the other conference session chair, Dr. Jean-Marie Meier, a JSOM assistant professor of finance and managerial economics, said. “It is a great opportunity for the faculty and PhD students at UT Dallas to exchange ideas and to network with leading finance academics from other top institutions.”
