The 2025 Annual Meeting of the Western Finance Association (WFA) was held recently in Utah, USA, marking another significant milestone for SAIF's global academic engagement.
The meeting announced the appointment of Professor Jun Pan, Professor of Finance and SAIF Chair Professor, to the WFA Board of Directors for a three-year term spanning 2025-2028. Concurrently, Professor Pan accepted the invitation from Professor Alex Edmans, the 2026 WFA Program Chair and President-Elect, to serve as Program Associate Chair for the 2026 WFA Annual Meeting.
At the 2025 WFA Annual Meeting, Professors Jun Pan and Yongxiang Wang (Chair Professor of Finance at SAIF), served as Program Committee Members. The SAIF delegation included Professor Yurong Hong, Associate Professor of Finance; Qiushi Huang, Assistant Professor of Finance; and Chen Chen, Assistant Professor of Finance, all of whom presented their latest research findings.
Founded in 1965, the WFA is an international non-profit academic organization dedicated to advancing cutting-edge research and application in finance. Alongside the American Finance Association (AFA) and the European Finance Association (EFA), it hosts one of the world's premier academic finance conferences. The WFA builds bridges between finance scholars, practitioners, and institutions to elevate global finance research through conferences, publications, and teaching collaboration. Its annual meetings regularly feature Nobel Laureates and scholars from top global universities.
The 2025 meeting featured 48 parallel sessions, covering leading-edge topics including Bank Runs and Failing Banks, Private Asset Markets, Corporate Financing Frictions, Market Microstructure, FinTech, and AI in Finance. SAIF scholars had two distinguished papers accepted for presentation: "What Can Cross-Sectional Stocks Tell Us About Core Inflation Shocks?" by Professors Jun Pan and Yurong Hong, SAIF PhD graduate Shiwen Tian, and co-author Jun Liu; and "Tech Dollars and Exchange Rates" by Professor Qiushi Huang, and co-authors Leonid Kogan and Dimitris Papanikolaou.
Scholars from Mainland China are increasingly active at top international finance conferences like the WFA, accelerating the global integration and impact of Chinese finance research. SAIF scholars significantly contribute to this trend through their rigorous scholarship and international collaboration.
SAIF operates on the model of a world-class business school and boasts a distinguished faculty. Its over 80 professors, spanning Finance, Accounting, Management, and related disciplines, hail from leading global institutions including the University of Pennsylvania, MIT, Stanford University, Northwestern University, Yale University, and the University of Chicago. Leveraging extensive international research, teaching, and practical experience, these scholars form the driving force behind SAIF's development as a top-tier finance institution.
The faculty's scholarly excellence is further evidenced by their key editorial positions at premier international academic journals. Professor Jun Pan serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Finance and Editor of the Review of Finance. Professor Yongxiang Wang holds positions as Associate Editor for both the Review of Finance and Management Science. Professor Xiaoyun Yu serves as Associate Editor of Management Science.
Collectively, they contribute unique "SAIF Insights" to advancing the integration and exchange between Chinese finance research and the international academic community.
