News

November 21, 2018

SAIF MF Employment Report 2018 Released

Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) recently released the employment report for SAIF Master of Finance (MF) graduates in 2018. The data shows that SAIF MF graduates are consistently favored by the market and are fully employed even before graduation (boasting the highest salary at over RMB 1,000,000). The SAIF MF Program has been the flagship program at SAIF since its inception in 2009. It has achieved ongoing and rapid growth, and it has won an outstanding reputation in the market. This year greeted 47 SAIF MF graduates, 62% male and 38% female, who are mostly undergraduates from leading universities in China, including: Peking University (21%), Fudan University (21%), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (19%), Tsinghua University (4%), and overseas students (accounting for 13%). The undergraduate majors are predominated by the fields of Economics, Management, Finance, Accounting, Finance and languages (62%); the remaining are accounted for by multidisciplinary backgrounds (38%). According to the report, 46 out of 47 graduates have been successfully employed with a mean starting salary of nearly RMB 300,000 and a median value of RMB 240,000. (The remaining graduate chose to continue his or her studies.) SAIF MF curriculum is designed to anticipate future trends, as well as to meet requirements for current practices within the financial industry — both in China and abroad. In addition to the technical skills provided by major finance classes, the LIVE Learning Center and the “Extended Learning and Student Activities” (ELSA) seminars help students to enhance their practical skills and knowledge. The SAIF MF Program was ranked No.1 in Asia and ranked No.10 globally by the Financial Timesin 2018, which is an unparalleled achievement in Asia in terms of investment return and salary growth.

October 22, 2018

SAIF and King's College London Signed a Memorandum of Cooperation

On October 15, 2018, the Signing Ceremony of the Memorandum of Cooperation between Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) and King's College London was held at the SAIF Xuhui Campus. The memorandum was signed by Professors Chun Chang (Executive Dean at SAIF) and Stephen Bach (Dean of King's Business School). Prof. Hong Yan (Deputy Dean at SAIF) and Prof. Igor Filatotchev (Associate Dean of King's Business School) attended the event. According to the memorandum, the two parties will combine their strong faculty and industry resources to cooperate in a number of key areas, including research, talent training, and international influence. In terms of training, the two parties will further work together in the development of international financial professionals through dual-degree programs, financial executive education programs, and exchange programs.

September 07, 2018

Prof. Haizhou Huang Won the Pagano and Zechner Best Paper at EFA

"The Capital Structure of Nations", co-authored by Prof. Haizhou Huang, Distinguished Professor at Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF); and Prof. Patrick Bolton, Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Columbia, won the “Pagano/Zechner Best Paper Award in 2017/18” granted by the European Finance Association (EFA). The Pagano/Zechner Best Paper Award was created by the EFA to recognize the best papers published in its official journal,Review of Finance, over the past year. The award ceremony will be held at the EFA’s annual conference. The Chinese version of the paper was originally published inComparative Studies(Volume 92), with a total word count of 5,284 Chinese characters. The official account ofComparative Studiesalso published the award announcement recently. From the perspective of innovative economic theory, this paper establishes a new economic model to analyze capital structure at the national level and creates a common micro-theoretical foundation for three independent and interrelated economic disciplines, namely: Monetary Economics, Fiscal Theory, and International Finance (while the micro-theoretical foundation is based on corporate finance).

July 26, 2018

Professor Jiang Wang Won the China Economics Prize 2018

On July 12th, 2018, Professor Jiang Wang, Chair of Academic Council of Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Mizuho Financial Group Professor of the Sloan School of Management, MIT, was awarded the China Economics Prize 2018 for his exceptional contributions in the field of finance. Established in 2016, the China Economics Prize is founded and led by the National Economics Foundation. The purpose of the award is to advance theoretical innovation, to boost economic science, and to encourage and promote Chinese economists to contribute to the prosperity of human economic science by awarding Chinese scholars who have made outstanding contributions to economics. The recipients of this year’s prize are Professor Jiang Wang and Professor Wei Xiong, the Academic Dean of the School of Management and Economics of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Professor of Finance and Professor of Economics at Princeton University. According to the Prize Committee, Professor Jiang Wang‘s important contribution is the development of a new asset pricing framework distinguished by incorporating market frictions into neoclassical theory, and the framework comprises three components. The first component is the development of asset pricing models that capture market participants’ important trading needs, providing a new theory to analyze the resulting equilibrium outcomes of such a model such as trading volume and price dynamics. The second part is studying market liquidity issues from the perspective of market frictions, thus providing a theoretical foundation for market liquidity. The third part is identifying potential inefficiencies caused by market frictions and exploring potential policy remedies ranging from regulatory actions to market interventions. Professor Wang’s research is mainly in the area of asset pricing, investment and risk management, market liquidity and stability, international finance, financial innovation and financial engineering, and Chinese capital market. He has published extensively in leading academic journals. He is the recipient of the Smith Breeden Prize, the FAME Research Prize, the Leo Melamed Prize, the Batterymarch Fellowship, among other scholarly awards. He has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Financial Markets, Operations Research, Quantitative Finance, Review of the Financial Studies and other professional journals. Professor Wang has served as a member of the Financial Advisory Roundtable of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the International Advisory Council of China Securities Regulatory Commission, the Economic Advisory Board of NASDAQ Stock Market, Inc., the Academic Advisory Board of FTSE and the Academic Advisory Board of Moody’s. He has also served as a Director of the American Finance Association and the Western Finance Association, the Distinguished Visiting Professor of the London Business School and the Singapore Management University, and the Director of China Finance Research Center at Tsinghua University. He was President of the Western Finance Association (2017-2018).

July 26, 2018

Professor Feng Li Received the 2018 AAA Distinguished Contributions to Accountin ...

On June 14, 2018, Professor Feng Li, Deputy Dean and Professor of Accounting at Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, received the 2018 Distinguished Contributions to Accounting Literature Award by the American Accounting Association (AAA). Founded in 1916, the American Accounting Association is the largest community of accountants in academia and one of the most influential academic accounting organizations in the world. The Distinguished Contributions to Accounting Literature Award is presented annually to work or related works published more than five years but not more than 15 years prior to the year of the award and recognizes accounting research based on uniqueness and magnitude of contribution to accounting education, practice and/or future accounting research, originality and innovative content, clarity and organization of exposition and soundness and appropriateness of methodology. The 2018 Distinguished Contributions to Accounting Literature Award is given to Professor Li for his works entitled “Annual report readability, current earnings, and earnings persistence” and “The Information Content of Forward-Looking Statements in Corporate Filings – A Naïve Bayesian Machine Learning Approach”. The award will be presented to Professor Li on August 8, 2018 at the AAA Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. Professor Li's research interest mainly lies in financial accounting, corporate disclosures and textual analysis. He has published widely in leading academic journals such as Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting and Economics, The Accounting Review, Management Science, and Journal of Financial Economics. Professor Li holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting, Finance and Economics area from University of Chicago. Before joining SAIF, Professor Li was Harry Jones Associate Professor of Accounting with tenure from 2011 to 2015 and the Ernst & Young Assistant Professor of Accounting from 2004 to 2011 in Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan.

July 26, 2018

Peter Carr Unfolded the Mystery of Options Market Volatility at SAIF Distinguish ...

As the guest speaker of SAIF-CAFR Distinguished SpeakerSeries on July 23rd, 2018, Prof. Peter Carr (Head of the Department of Finance and Risk Engineering at the School of Engineering of New York University), focused on the options market and analyzed the relationship between volatility trading, skew trading, and smiletrading. Prof. David Li, Deputy Director of China Academy of Financial Research (CAFR) and Professor at Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), hosted the interactive discussion session. Prof. Carr is highly recognized and respected by both students and practitioners of financial metrology. As one of Wall Street's most authoritative experts in quantitative investment, he worked for several of the world's leading institutions (including Morgan Stanley and Bloomberg Quant Research) and he was selected as one of the “Top 50 Fin-Tech Influencers”. Moreover, he has more than 85 publications in academic and industry journals and serves as an associate editor of several journals related to mathematics finance, boasting extensive experience in both industry and academia. During the event, Prof. Carr explained the definitions of volatility trading, skew trading, and smile trading to the audience, and analyzed the right timing of these trading opportunities. When the expectation of random mean is different from the observed implied volatility, it means an opportunity for volatility trading. When the non-zero slope is different than expected, there is a chance of skew trading. And when the convex number is different from the actual volatility in the future, it implies an opportunity for smile trading.

July 09, 2018

Xiaochuan Zhou at SAIF Distinguished Guest Series

On July 1st, Xiaochuan Zhou, President of China Society for Finance & Banking and former President of the People's Bank of China, shared his insights and analysis on Fin-Tech, Big-Tech, and other hot topics, (including eMoney and Libra), at the SAIF Distinguished Guest Series. Sixian Jiang, Secretary of the CPC Committee of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) and Vice Chair of SAIF Board; Dexiu Ma, Deputy Director of the Committee of Education, Science, Culture, Health and Sports of the 12thNational Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), former Secretary of the CPC Committee Secretary of SJTU, and former Vice Chair of SAIF Board; Xiaoming Zhu, Vice Chairman of the 11thShanghai CPPCC and former President of China Europe International Business School (CEIBS); Penghui Jin, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Headquarters and President of the Shanghai Branch of the People's Bank of China; and Yang Zheng, then Director of Shanghai Municipal Financial Regulatory Bureau and Director of SAIF Board were invited to the event, along with nearly 300 SAIF faculty, students, and alumni. In his speech, Zhou elaborated "China's current financial business systems and their characteristics”, “some questions to face and answer before innovating the systems”, “general considerations of financial policies on Fin-Tech”, and “some preliminary comments on eMoney and Libra"; he then shared his latest insights. Jiang Wang, Chair of Faculty Council at SAIF, presided over the Q&A session, on which he discussed and exchanged ideas with Zhou on the topic of “Revolutionary Innovations that Will Be Brought about by the Evolution of Information Technology”; they then answered questions from the audience. The event was hosted by Chun Chang, Executive Dean of SAIF.

July 05, 2018

SAIF Witnessed the Inaugural NBER-SAIF Conference

From June 29thto 30th, 2018, the inaugural NBER-SAIF Conference was held at Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). This marked the kick-off of the 10-year collaboration between SAIF and the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). The theme of this event was “Retirement Protection: Public and Commercial Annuities”. The two-day conference brought together outstanding representatives from both home and abroad. It not only turned the event into an academic festival, but also enabled cross-border thinking of retirement protection solutions in China. During the conference, a total of six leading economists and eight scholars from NBER presented their papers, reviewed the status quo and challenges of China's retirement protection system, and learnt from each other's experiences and lessons. Nearly 100 participants from Chinese and international institutions and industry attended the event. NBER representatives included: Prof. James Poterba, NBER Chairman and Professor of Economics at MIT; Prof. Hanming Fang, Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania; Prof. Alan Auerbach, Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley; Prof. Olivia Mitchell, Executive Director of the Wharton Pension Research Council at the University of Pennsylvania; Prof. Shangjin Wei, Professor of Economics at Columbia University; and Prof. Robert Clark, Professor of Economics at North Carolina State University. Prof. Jiang Wang, Chair of Faculty Council at SAIF; Prof. Chun Chang, Executive Dean and Professor of Finance at SAIF; andProf. Hong Yan, Associate Dean and Professor of Finance at SAIF and Associate Director of China Academy of Financial Research at SJTU attended the conference, which was presided over by Prof. Yan. About the NBER-SAIF series of conferences. The NBER-SAIF series of conferences are a set of biennial conferences jointly organized by SAIF and NBER. The NBER-SAIF conferences are designed: to build a broader research community on the economics of public policies, with particular reference to the policies that bear on financial markets in China and other emerging economies; to share rigorous, currentsresearch by NBER and SAIF researchers, leading international scholars and policy experts; and to promote research on economic policy issues of interest to both China and the United States.

June 28, 2018

Lars Peter Hansen: How to Navigate in the Mist of Uncertainties

On June 14th, 2018, “Lujiazui Forum - SAIF Night: Financial Reform and Risk Prevention under Economic Globalization" was jointly hosted by Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) and CBN Research Institute. It greeted Prof. Lars Peter Hansen, Nobel Laureate in Economics in 2013 and Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. Prof. Hansen gave a speech on the multiple factors of uncertainties, the complexity of statistics, the rational expectations theory in economic models, and the practical significance of uncertainty to climate change and financial market regulation. Panel discussants included: Dr. Yang Li, Chairman of the National Financial Development Laboratory; Dr. Chenghui Zhang, former Director of the Financial Research Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council; Prof. Chun Chang, Executive Dean and Professor of Finance at SAIF; Dr. Z Yudong Yao, Chief Economist of Dacheng Fund; and Prof. Jianping Ding, Director of the Center for Modern Finance Research at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. They discussed financial reforms and risk prevention under economic globalization with Prof. Hansen. According to Prof. Hansen, although financial market regulation is a complex issue, a complete set of complex solutions might be unnecessary, “because we have to admit that our understanding of financial markets and macroeconomics is limited. We blindly pursue complex solutions, while, in some cases, simple policies can help us avoid uncertainty.” He suggested that different models can be compared to find potential alternatives. In addition, simple and prudent policies should be adopted because they can avoid increasing uncertainty in an economic environment and perform well in different models. "The economy itself is already complicated. If we adopt complex policies, it will lead to more uncertainties. Moreover, many policies have room for self-discretion, which will add further uncertainties."

June 27, 2018

Michael Jordan on AI: Artificial Intelligence or Limited Intelligence

On May 24th, 2018, SAIF-CAFR Distinguished SpeakerSeries hosted by Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF), at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) welcomed Michael Jordan. He is a Professor of both the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Department of Statistics of the University of California at Berkeley, and is a master of machine learning. He delivered a speech on the theme of "The Prospects and Challenges of Artificial Intelligence", which explained the precise implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the possibility of AI commercialization. Feng Li, Deputy Dean and Professor of Accounting at SAIF, discussed the prospects and challenges of AI in both technical direction and business model, with Jordan. For the application of AIin the financial sector, Prof. Jordan believed that although AI has its own merits, it is impossible to replace human intuition, because human insights are extraordinary. When talking about excessive data in financial applications, he stated that in some domains, data is not a problem (the more data the better); while in other areas, it may cause confusion and should be avoided. In his keynote speech, Prof. Jordan analyzed the current position and practical principles of AI in applications and vividly demonstrated how machine learning can make progress in deep learning. He started with the word “AI” and pointed out: "AI is not a new thing. It used to be machine learning. It is still far from intelligence." In his opinion, real intelligence calls for forward-looking planning.