On July 6th - 9th, the 18th China International Conference in Finance (CICF) was successfully held. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CICF conference was held in a combined online and on-site format in Shanghai; it was the first among the four major global financial academic conferences to be held in this unique way. With a total of 1293 participants, 2065 submitted papers, 284 accepted papers, and 71 academic sessions, this year's CICF once again proved its growing international influence.
Professor Jiang Wang (Chair Professor in Management at MIT Sloan School, Chair of Academic Council at SAIF) chaired the conference. Professor Zhiguo He (Fuji Bank and Heller Chair Professor in Finance at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business) chaired the paper review committee, and Professor Kewei Hou (Ric Dillon Chair Professor in Investment at Ohio State University, Fisher College of Business) co-chaired the Paper Review Committee. Professor Chun Chang (Huifu Chair Professor, Executive Dean at SAIF) attended the conference and delivered a speech.
Professor Kenneth J. Singleton (Adams Distinguished Professor of Management, Emeritus at Stanford Graduate School of Business) gave a keynote speech entitled "How Much 'Rationality' is there in the Bond-Market Risk Premiums?".
The conference lasted for three days and featured 71 sessions, including 9 specialized ones with a focus on China. The 9 sessions presented and reviewed high-quality papers on China's financial markets and provided a unique perspective on the opportunities and challenges of China's financial development.
In this year's CICF, SAIF showed its outstanding academic influence with a large number of papers (by its own faculty and Ph.D. students) being admitted. In addition, multiple SAIF professors chaired different sessions or reviewed the papers at CICF.
The conference also established the Best Paper Review Committee, which was co-chaired by Professor Zhiguo He and Professor Kewei Hou. Seven papers were awarded the CICF Best Paper Award, Xia Yihong Best Paper Award, and Xiyue Best Paper Award, respectively. The paper "The SOE Premium and Government Support in China's Credit Market" co-authored by Jun Pan (Chair Professor at SAIF) and Zhe Geng (Ph.D. student at SAIF) won the CICF Best Paper Award. A full list of the awards is as follows.
CICF Best Paper Award:
"The SOE Premium and Government Support in China's Credit Market" co-authored by Jun Pan and Zhe Geng.
"Regulatory Costs of Being Public: Evidence from Bunching Estimation" co-authored by Michael Ewens, Kairong Xiao and Ting Xu.
"Global Carbon Divestment and Firms' Actions" co-authored by Darwin Choi, Zhenyu Gao, Wenxi Jiang and Hulai Zhang.
Xia Yihong Best Paper Award:
"Information Cascades and Threshold Implementation: Theory and An Application to Crowdfunding" co-authored by Will Cong and Yizhou Xiao.
"Ownership and Competition" co-authored by Alessio Piccolo and Jan Schneemeier.
Xiyue Best Paper Award:
"Mapping US-China Technology Decoupling, Innovation, and Firm Performance" co-authored by Pengfei Han, Wei Jiang and Danqing Mei.
"Centralization or Decentralization? The Evolution of State-Ownership in China" co-authored by Franklin Allen, Junhui Cai, Xian Gu, Jun Qian, Linda Zhao and Wu Zhu.
