The 23rd China International Conference in Finance (CICF) was successfully held in Shenzhen from June 29th to July 2nd. This year's conference was co-organized by Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU); Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB); School of Management and Economics/SIDE, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen; and SUSTech College of Business/SAFE, Southern University of Science and Technology.
Founded in 2002 by the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, CICF has evolved into Asia's largest and most prestigious international finance conference under SAIF's stewardship since 2013, ranking among the top finance conferences globally.
The conference received 1,758 valid paper submissions from 3,056 authors. With 236 accepted papers, 60 academic sessions, and 472 academic presentations and reviews, the conference covered a comprehensive range of advanced research areas in finance. The annual conference set a new record for on-site attendance with 1,345 registered participants, demonstrating the significant academic standing and international influence of CICF in the fields of finance and economics.
The conference was chaired by Jiang Wang (Mizuho Financial Group Professor at Sloan School of Management, MIT, and Senior Advisory Visiting Professor at SAIF), with Neng Wang (Dean's Distinguished Chair Professor of Finance and Senior Associate Dean, CKGSB) chairing the agenda committee, and Hua Fang (Chair Professor of Finance and Deputy Dean for Research, INSEAD) and Dong Lou (Chair Professor of Finance and Associate Dean, HKUST Business School) co-chairing the agenda committee. Hong Yan (Chair Professor of Finance, Deputy Dean of Academic Affairs and Faculty at SAIF) attended the conference and delivered a keynote address.
Professor Thomas J. Sargent, Nobel Laureate in Economics (2011), delivered the keynote address entitled "Implementing Optimal Fiscal Policy with Short Term Debt," sharing his latest collaborative research (Jiang, Sargent, and Wang, 2025) with Professor Wei Jiang (HKUST) and Professor Neng Wang (CKGSB).
Papers by SAIF full-time professors—including Jun Pan, Hong Yan, Xiaoyun Yu, Yongxiang Wang, Yurong Hong, Qiushi Huang, and Chen Chen—were selected for the conference. Notably, a paper co-authored by Qiushi Huang received the Xiyue Best Paper Award. SAIF PhD students also excelled, with papers by Yongqi He, Qing Peng, and Xingjian Zheng being accepted. Numerous full-time and special-term professors—including Hong Yan, Xiaoyun Yu, Nengjiu Ju, Yongxiang Wang, Hui Chen, Bing Han, Jun Liu, Dacheng Xiu, Liyan Yang, Huibing Zhang, and Guofu Zhou—served as session chairs. Full-time professors, including Yurong Hong, Junxiong Gao, Xiao Zhao, Chao Zi, Chen Chen, Dong Yan, and Ke Shi, served as paper review experts, demonstrating the academic excellence of SAIF faculty.
The Best Paper Review Committee, chaired by Neng Wang and co-chaired by Hua Fang and Dong Lou (with Xin Chang, Hui Chen, and Rossen Valkanov as committee members), awarded seven papers with either the CICF Best Paper Award, the Xia Yihong Best Paper Award, or the Xiyue Best Paper Award.
Xia Yihong Best Paper Award
• "Bond Demand and the Yield-Exchange Rate Nexus: Risk Premium vs. Convenience Yield" authored by Dongchen Zou
• "Resistance and Arbitrage: International Trade in Brown Loans" authored by Lishu Zhang
CICF Best Paper Award
• "Automation-Induced Innovation Shift" co-authored by Lin William Cong, Yao Lu, Hanqing Shi, and Wu Zhu
• "Debt and Deficits: Fiscal Analysis with Stationary Ratios" co-authored by John Campbell, Can Gao, and Ian Martin
• "SOE Inspections and Corporate Policies in China" co-authored by Wukuang Cun, Vincenzo Quadrini, Qi Sun, and Junjie Xia
Xiyue Best Paper Award
• "Anomaly Never Disappeared: The Case of Stubborn Retail Investors" co-authored by Xi Dong, Joel Peress, and Cathy Yang
• "Tech Dollars: Technological Innovation and Exchange Rates" co-authored by Qiushi Huang, Leonid Kogan, and Dimitris Papanikolaou
About CICF
The China International Conference in Finance (CICF) serves as an open platform for global finance scholars to share pioneering research. Since its inception in 2002, CICF has grown steadily in stature and reputation, now recognized as Asia's largest and highest-level academic finance conference. Globally, it ranks alongside the annual meetings of the Western Finance Association (WFA), the American Finance Association (AFA), and the European Finance Association (EFA) as one of the world's top four finance conferences.
Since 2013, the MIT Sloan School of Management and SAIF have co-organized this premier event in collaboration with universities across China, fostering significant advancements in finance research with a global perspective rooted in China.
About SAIF
Established on April 19, 2009, the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) was founded by the Shanghai Municipal People's Government in support of China's national strategy to build Shanghai into an international financial center. SAIF is committed to establishing a world-class institution within China, distinguished by first-rate faculty, exceptional finance talent, an open research platform, and a preeminent think tank. Affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, SAIF operates as an internationalized finance institute modeled after top-tier global business schools.
