Top researchers from around the United States and internationally gathered at the Naveen Jindal School of Management recently for the 2024 UT Dallas Fall Finance Conference.
In its seventh year, the conference, organized by JSOM’s Finance and Managerial Economics Area, hosted 75 scholars on Sept. 27 and 28.
Researchers worldwide were invited to submit papers to be considered for the conference. A program committee comprised of Jindal School finance faculty led by Drs. Jun Li and Han Xia, who selected ten out of 220 submissions to be presented at the conference.
Each presentation was allotted 20 minutes, followed by a 15-minute discussion of the research by a discussant. Questions, further discussion, and exchange of ideas followed.
Discussants used their expertise to provide commentary on the papers and explore how each one advances the topic. They are a vital component of the conference, according to Dr. Harold Zhang, a finance professor and area coordinator in the Jindal School’s Finance and Managerial Economics Area.
“We chose leading scholars for discussants of each paper who are experts in those areas,” he said. “That is a benefit to the researchers and the attendees. I believe that is one of the reasons for the success of this conference.”
Dr. Hasan Pirkul, Caruth Chair and Jindal School dean, welcomed attendees and shared information about the school.
“One of the things that make me most proud is our research ranking,” he said. “It is used by staff, PhD students, and others.”
Research is a foundational element of the Jindal School and plays a crucial role in the academic experience. It enables students to explore cutting-edge topics and have an impact in their fields of study.
The UTD Top 100 Business School Research Rankings™ were created by JSOM to track publications in 24 leading peer-reviewed academic journals that focus on business. It contains titles and author affiliations of papers published in those journals since 1990. The information is used to provide the top 100 business school rankings since 1990 based on the total contributions of faculty.
Faculty members from JSOM’s Finance and Managerial Area chaired each session, including Dr. Hao Pang, an assistant professor.
“The conference was incredibly beneficial to me in several ways,” he said. “It provided a unique opportunity to meet and connect with scholars from various fields, allowing me to gain insights beyond my own area of research.
“This was especially valuable for me as a junior researcher who hasn’t yet had the chance to connect with many people in the finance field. Engaging with experts on different topics opened up new perspectives and introduced me to frontier research ideas in finance that I wouldn’t normally encounter in my regular readings. These discussions not only expanded my knowledge but also sparked new ideas for potential interdisciplinary collaborations.”
Keynote speaker Itay Goldstein, a professor of finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, addressed financial fragility and responses to crises and differences in ESG (environmental, social and governance) investors and traditional investors in “Amplification and Fragility in Financial Markets.”
“ESG (environmental, social, and governance) trading, a framework used to evaluate a company’s social and environmental impact, is a new source of market fragility,” he said.
“What you find in these models is that (ESG and traditional) investors trade against each other,” he said. “The two groups want different things.”
Goldstein mentioned other sources of market fragility, including “learning by investors, strategic complementarities due to hedging demand, and feedback effect on the real economy.”
A study of the financial conditions of local governments was presented by Haaris Mateen, an assistant professor of finance at the University of Houston’s C.T. Bauer College of Business. His co-researchers were Oliver Giesecke and Marcelo Sena of Stanford University.
“Local governments employ many and are important economic entities,” Mateen said, “They keep spreadsheets the same as large firms. Of the 1,800 cities in our sample, 61% have negative book equity positions. Our results show that, for example, the city of Chicago and other cities are not doing well; neither is Dallas.”
Among the contributing challenges faced by these municipal governments are obligations predominantly related to legacy commitments, such as pensions and other employment benefits.
Dennis Ahern of the University of Southern California, who has done similar research, was the discussant for Mateen’s paper.
The topic of hiring foreign workers was addressed in research conducted by presenter Jin Xie of Peking University’s HSBC Business School. “Nationalistic Labor Policies Hinder Financial Innovation,” concluded that hiring specialized foreign workers is necessary for innovation and is vital for productivity, economic growth, and cultural richness.
Xie’s co-researchers were Francesco D’Acunto of Georgetown University, Hengyi Hung, of Tilburg University and Michael Weber of the University of Chicago. Dr. Jess Cornaggiaof Penn State, who received a PhD from UT Dallas in 2009, was the discussant.
“Measuring Misinformation in Financial Markets,” offered by Yang Song of the University of Washington, addressed the timely topic of dealing with misinformation. He worked on the research with Jianqing Fan of Princeton University, and Qingfu Liu and, Zilu Wang of Fudan University in Shanghai, China. The discussant for the presentation was Xiaofei Zhao of Georgetown University.
The nationwide study showed how often people make investments based on misinformation, intentional and accidental.
“Small investors are more influenced by misinformation,” Song said.
A look at how shareholders influence the design of managerial compensation through Say-on-Pay (SOP) Votes (a vote that allows shareholders to express their support or opposition to a company’s executive compensation program) was presented by John Barry of Rice University’s Jones School of Business.
“Information sharing between the board and shareholders is not as good as it should be,” he said. “How would things change if they shared their secret information?”
The discussant for Barry’s paper, “Shareholder Voice and Executive Compensation,” was Felix Feng of the University of Washington.
Other presentations were:
- “Collateral Damage: Low-Income Borrowers Depend on Income-based Lending,” presented by Mark Jansen of the University of Utah. Adam Winegar of BI Norwegian Business School was co-researcher. The discussant was Huan Tang of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
- “Labor Market Polarization and Student Debt,” presented by Sanket Korganonkar of the University of Virginia. Additional researchers were Elena Loutskina of the University of Virginia and Constantine Yannelis of the University of Chicago. The discussant was Ankit Kalda of Indiana University.
- “Nominal rigidity and the Inflation Risk Premium,” presented by Hengjie Ai of the University of Wisconsin. Additional researchers were Xinxin Hu of the University of Wisconsin and Xuhui Pan of the University of Oklahoma. The discussant was Ali Ozdagli from the Dallas Federal Reserve.
- “Equity Premium Events” was presented by Mehrdad Samade of the Federal Reserve Board. Also contributing to the paper were Ben Knox, Juan M. Londono, and Annette Vissing-Jorgensen, all from the Federal Reserve Board.
- “Tech Dollars and Exchange Rate Reconnect,” presented by Qiushi Huang of Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF). Other researchers were Leonid Kogan of MIT and Dimitris Papanikolaou of Northwestern University. The discussant was Shaojun Zhang of Ohio State University.
- “Environmental Disclosures in Global Supply Chains, presented by Christian Opp of Rochester University. Co-researcher was Xingtan Zhang of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. The discussant was Decksha Gupta of John Hopkins University.
“The conference was an absolute success, featuring a keynote speech by one of the foremost scholars in the finance profession, as well as papers and discussions from top-notch researchers in finance theory, asset pricing, and household finance,” said Dr. Alejandro Rivera, an associate professor of finance at the Jindal School. “Moreover, Prof. Han Xia organized some terrific dinners showcasing some of the finest dining in Plano and allowing our graduate students and junior faculty to interact and learn from our presenters.”
In addition to the program, interested attendees were given a tour of the recently opened Trammell and Margaret Crow Museum of Asian Art at UT Dallas.
The museum showcases the Asian art collection of Dallas commercial real estate Trammel Crow and his wife, Margaret. In 2019, the Crow family donated the entire collection to UT Dallas in memory of their parents. The museum operates in two locations, the original museum in the Dallas Arts District and the new facility within Phase I of the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum, a multiphase arts and performance complex on the UT Dallas campus. The collection features pieces from historical to contemporary from China, Japan, India, Korea, and Southeastern Asia.
Zhang commented that faculty members in the Finance and Managerial Economics Area have received “very positive feedback” about the conference from participants.
“The UTD Finance Conference was a great success,” he said. “There were a record number of submissions which allowed us to select the highest quality papers to be included in the conference. The discussants were all leading experts in the respective research areas for the papers on the program. The conference attracted presenters and discussants from leading finance programs.
“The conference has substantially increased the visibility and reputation of the Jindal School of Management at UT Dallas.”
