The International Moscow Finance Conference will open its doors for the twelfth time on 24 and 25 November 2023. We talked with conference organizers Vladimir Sokolov of HSE ICEF International Laboratory of Financial Economics and Maria Semenova of HSE Centre for Institutional Studies and asked about the keynote presentations, speakers, and how this Conference facilitates cooperation and co-authorships.
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How did the idea of Moscow Finance Conference come about? What kind of studies does it focus on?
Vladimir: The International Moscow Financial Conference aims to strengthen HSE’s reputation as a global finance research centre. We attract both experienced scholars and junior researchers from across the world and serve as an academic venue where representatives of the world’s leading universities and research centers, including HSE University, can present their research, exchange ideas, receive feedback, establish networks and start research collaborations.
Maria: ICEF LFE and CInSt have years of experience organising the international finance research conferences with speakers from top schools. Last year, despite the challenging political climate, we chose to stay true to the tradition and pooled our efforts to further maintain the HSE University’s reputation as a prolific, top-class venue for finance research. This year marks our twelfth international conference, and it’s going to be top class.
How wide is this year’s geography of the participants?
Vladimir: Very wide. This year we have many speakers from mainland China, particularly Peking University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. One keynote speaker, Xuewen Liu, represents the University of Hong Kong, and another participant is from National Taiwan University. We also enjoy participation of the North American universities: there will be speakers and discussants from the Michigan State University, University of Toronto, Purdue University, Clemson University, University of South Carolina, Boston College. Europe will be represented by Rome’s Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance and Britain’s University of Exeter. Finally, the Russian side will be represented by no less reputable schools including HSE, of course. This year researchers from the Bank of Russia will be also presenting their work.
Maria: Let me add that this year’s call for papers marked the record number of submissions – over 40. Their geography is remarkably wide, too. Applications came from the University of Munster, New Mexico University, Naples University, Alberta University, Pennsylvania State University, Temple University, the Central University of Finance and Economics (Beijing), City University of Malaysia, Auckland University of Technology, Rutgers University, to name a few. Between you and me, multiple submissions came even from the Bank of Russia.
Can you tell more about your keynote speakers and the topics they’ll be speaking on?
Vladimir: The 12th International Moscow Finance Conference features two keynote presentations.
First speech is by Professor Xuewen Liu from the University of Hong Kong, HKU Business School, and focuses on theoretical aspects of financial asset pricing and how it responds to investor choices and preferences.
The other presentation is by Professor Andrey Simonov from Michigan State University, Broad College of Business. Andrey’s research interests are behavioral finance, mutual funds, and hedge funds. He explores them empirically and theoretically. Andrey will present his paper on long-term investment in target-date funds.
Both speakers have had their research published in the Top 3 financial journals – Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies.
Maria: As Vladimir has already said, this year’s conference covers all main fields of Finance. So, everyone in the audience will surely find topic that fits their interests. Notably, the selected papers discuss both classical and current issues such as ESG in Finance and relationship between finance and burning social issues such as eradication of poverty.
Are there updates in the programme design, how does the 12th Conference stand apart from all previous ones?
Vladimir: For all previous conferences, ICEF LSE sought to design the programme so that is could be a perfect balance between empirical and theoretical papers. We selected papers from various fields of finance. CInSt, in turn, organized the Banking Workshop, which focused mainly on banking. This year’s conference is designed to be a blend of these two aspects, covering a wide range of topics including asset pricing, banking, and corporate finance.
Maria: Due to many submissions, there were a lot of strong studies. For this reason, we decided to extend the duration of the conference to two days, not one, as was initially planned. Day 1 features both in-person and online presentations, and day 2 will unfold fully online.
Conference Programme
Will there be speakers from the ICEF and CInSt faculty?
Vladimir: There’s another good tradition we maintain: if the conference lineup is composed of predominantly external speakers, the faculty of HSE University are invited to contribute as discussants. This year is no exception. Presentation will be followed by discussions and we’ll have them led by our colleagues from ICEF, CInSt, and FES. By doing so, the Higher School of Economics serves as a platform for initiating partnerships and co-authorship with scholars from all over the world. A good discussion benefits both speakers and discussants, contributing to HSE’s reputation as a leading research centre in the field of financial economics.
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