ICEF-CInSt Conference is a Venue for International Research Networking
On 24-25 November 2023 the International Laboratory of Financial Economics (HSE ICEF LFE) and the Centre for Institutional Studies (HSE CInSt) hosted the 12th ICEF-CInSt International Moscow Finance Conference.
This year’s conference received 40+ submissions and has considerably expanded the geography of its participants. Researchers from Russia, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the USA, Canada, Italy, and the United Kingdom actively contributed as speakers and discussants. The conference organizers maintained the tradition of assigning the HSE colleagues as discussants. According to presenters’ feedback, such collaborative format produced significant benefits, provided valuable insights and highlighted areas in which authors could have pursued a more productive path in their studies.
The keynote speakers of the conference were– Xuewen Liu (University of Hong Kong) and Andrey Simonov (Michigan State University).
Professor Liu presented his theoretical asset pricing study on investors’ choices and preferences. The model he proposes allows to explain several empirical stylized facts.
Professor Simonov specializes in behavioral finance, mutual funds, and hedge funds. The paper he presented discusses the long-term investment in target-date mutual funds, raising the question of where multi-trillion-dollar conglomerates can lead us to. Professor Simonov stressed in his talk that as customers of these giants are getting older and more experienced, the extent to which these businesses are prepared for regulatory change and whether they can meet the new requirements remains questionable.
Here comes the feedback from the organizers – Head of ICEF LFE Vladimir Sokolov and CInSt Director Maria Semenova:
Vladimir Sokolov: These two days demonstrated the importance of international research conferences. For many years ICEF and CInSt have been running different conferences in parallel but recently we joined our efforts. Our good reputation and experience have allowed us to attract researchers from the world’s leading research centers. The hybrid online and in-person presentations, made it possible to have talks from researchers from the United States and China, as well as from other countries. I can say that with this conference we have fully achieved our goal of strengthening the reputation of the HSE University as one of the leading finance research centers.
Maria Semenova: My impression is that the conference was very successful, and we did even better than expected. What contributed to this success was, first, brilliant presentations, delivered by researchers from the University of Toronto, Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance, Purdue University, University of South Carolina, University of Exeter, Boston College, Peking University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, National Taiwan University, Florida Atlantic University, and the Bank of Russia. Not only has the Conference expanded the geography of its participants, it covered a wider range of topics from corporate finance to banking and asset pricing.
We made it our specific feature to ensure very detailed and in-depth discussions. This year they were almost as long as the presentations themselves, if not longer. Our colleagues from Clemson University, Wenzhou-Kean University, CInSt, ICEF, and FES approached their task with great responsibility, providing a wealth of comments that gave clues on where in their studies the presenters could have done better. Constructive feedback from colleagues is exactly what academic events like ours are designed for.
Vladimir Sokolov: I would like to point out the in-person participation of Andrey Golubov from the University of Toronto and Sergey Tsyplakov of the University of South Carolina.
Prof. Golubov presented his study Non-Compete Agreements and the Market for Corporate Control, where he explores how executive mobility of the CEOs when they are prohibited from joining competitor businesses to safeguard corporate intellectual property rights affects merges and acquisitions. Prof. Sergey Stepanov from ICEF and FES has prepared a detailed discussion of this presentation. He provided the new theoretical perspectives on the study from which further empirical research can benefit.
Sergey Tsyplakov discussed the paper presented by Luana Zaccaria of the Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance - a collaborative effort of Luana and Bank of Ital’s officials, it explores the impact of the IPO of certain companies within a group on the affiliated companies. Commenting on the study, Sergey praised the Italian authors for the innovative approach and suggested some aspects that could constitute a topic of the new research. He particularly proposed to explore in more detail the mechanism for identifying businesses with good potential for going public.
I should stress an additional benefit of in-person participation of our international colleague for our ICEF LFE and CInSt researchers is an opportunity to discuss their own projects and ideas during the coffee breaks and after the conference.
Maria Semenova: Let me note that the idea of extending the conference came in very much in handy. It was initially quite a challenge to fit all the brilliant papers that were submitted into just one day, November 24. Finally, we ended up with a simple decision to have one extra online session on November 25 and have thus included more presentations.
I’d say we have achieved our goal just perfectly this year. With this Conference we have demonstrated the HSE is staying open to the international academic partnerships. We are eager to hold this top-level event in the future, serving as a platform for research cooperation in the field of finance.
Vladimir Sokolov: The conference has demonstrated that international research cooperation is an important aspect of the academic life. By setting up the new co-authorships with researchers based in different countries, we can expect a further increase in institutional linkages.
Hongxun Ruan
Peking University
I wanted to express my sincere thanks for your insightful discussion. Your comments are very fresh and interesting. Thank you once again for your time and valuable input.
Anna Agapova
Florida Atlantic University
I would like to thank you for organizing a great conference and including our paper on the conference program. I also want to thank you for selecting discussants that provided a great quality of discussion and comments. I was very impressed with the quality of discussion for all papers presented in the session that I was presenting in. I hope to participate in your future conferences.
Sergey Tsyplakov
University of South Carolina
This conference is the only one in Moscow (I know of) with such high-level presentation of papers potentially publishable in respectable Finance journals.
