News

August 05, 2021

2021 China International Conference in Finance (CICF) Held

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.

August 04, 2021

2021 SAIF-CAFR Financial Research Summer Camp Held

On July 10th and 11th, the Fourth SAIF-CAFR Financial Research Summer Camp was successfully held in a hybrid online-offline format. It was jointly organized by the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) and the China Academy of Financial Research (CAFR) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). Designed for young scholars, teachers, and Ph.D. students both in China and internationally, the SAIF-CAFR Financial Research Summer Camp introduces participants to the frontiers of academic research in finance. It provides them with cutting-edge research methodologies and fresh perspectives delivered by world-renowned professors. Its intent is to inspire their future academic careers and further enhance the overall quality of research and teaching of finance in China. The 2021 Summer Camp consists of onsite lectures given by three renowned finance professors. These include: Zhiguo He (Fuji Bank and Heller Professor of Finance and Jeuck Faculty Fellow, Booth School of Business, University of Chicago; Distinguished Visiting Professor at SAIF), Kewei Hou (Ric Dillon Endowed Professor in Investments, Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University; Special-Term Professor of Finance at SAIF), and Jianfeng Yu (Jianshu Chair Professor of Finance at PBCSF, Director of the Research Center for Asset Management, PBCSF-NIFR, Tsinghua University). The summer camp has received a lot of academic attention, and financial scholars from both home and abroad have actively applied. Eventually, 65 offline participants and 239 online participants were admitted. Most were professors, Ph.D. students, and researchers from renowned universities in China and beyond. Overseas scholars and researchers from Europe, America, Oceania, and the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 17% of the total participants. Professor Hong Yan (Professor of Finance, Deputy Dean for faculty and research at SAIF) delivered a welcome speech. In his speech, Professor Yan stated that the camp was established to promote academic exchanges in China and the Asia-Pacific region, stimulate innovative ideas and enhance the research capacity of young scholars. He also praised the participants’ enthusiasm for financial academic research and introduced the teaching faculty of the camp. The 1½ day program started with a lecture delivered by Professor Zhiguo He on "Fintech (Theory) and China's Financial Market (Empirical)". The lecture went over the most recent work that Professor He had been working on over the past five years. He first focused on theoretical modeling of bitcoin mining pools and competition between fintech and the traditional banking industry under open banking, together with empirical research related to these theoretical models. Then he discussed developments in China's bond market, including its interaction with local government debt and shadow banking, and the economic issues of SOE reforms in detail. Professor Jianfeng Yu gave a lecture on "Behavioral Approach to Asset Pricing Puzzles". In his lecture, Professor Yu gave a summary of recent developments in behavioral asset pricing. He then discussed the latest developments on the applications of extrapolation, prospect theory, investor trading behavior, and applications of several under-explored behavioral biases (such as the priming effect). Lastly, he investigated the role of mispricing in several prominent factor models. The theme of the lecture given by Professor Kewei Hou was "Factor Pricing and Anomalies: Latest Developments". The lecture was centered around a set of academic papers. It covered topics such as: the robustness of the anomaly literature, the latest factor models, stress-testing factor models with robust anomalies, and the relation between security analysis and factor models. The lecture helped participants to acquaint themselves with ongoing research in related fields. It also equipped them with a solid understanding of the quantitative tools in these fields in order to conduct related research. During the camp, the participants had thorough discussions with the professors and expressed their expectations for future Financial Research Summer Camp programs.

August 02, 2021

2021 SAIF Faculty Retreat Held

The 2021 SAIF Faculty Retreat was successfully held in Nantong, Jiangsu Province from June 28th to the 30th. The retreat was conducted both onsite and virtually, with a total of nearly 60 participants, including faculty, management, and department chiefs. The retreat focused on SAIF's development over the past year and shed light on such topics as talent training and think tank construction. With the strengths of faculty governance and active inter-departmental cooperation, the annual retreat effectively promotes SAIF's faculty development, discipline construction, and educational program innovation. This year's retreat was presided over by Professor Hong Yan (Deputy Dean for faculty and research at SAIF). Professor Chun Chang (Executive Dean at SAIF) introduced the key tasks including think tank construction and educational programs development related to SAIF’s Phase III strategic development. SAIF's recent achievements, including its extended AACSB accreditation and its discipline ranking, were also mentioned. Hui Wang, Mayor of Nantong, also attended and addressed the meeting. “Nantong city and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) have had a close relationship since over a century ago," Mayor Wang said, "and it has been deepened recently by the signing of the strategic cooperation agreement between the two parties." He also introduced the current development of Nantong's economy and hoped to develop deeper collaboration with SAIF in the future. In the educational programs and research sessions, program directors from MF, MBA, and EED briefed the progress of their respective programs, analyzed the challenges they faced, and proposed innovative measures for future development. Professor Feng Li, Associate Director of CAFR, systematically introduced the school's think tank development and the training programs delivered by CAFR and SAIFR. On June 29th, the award ceremony for the "SAIF Outstanding Teaching Award"was also held during the retreat. Professor Eric Chang was awarded the 5th SAIF Outstanding Teaching Award. This award is sponsored by the "Weiye Teacher Scholarship"founded by Weiming Wang (a SAIF alumnus), to honor SAIF faculty for their outstanding contributions to teaching. On June 30th, the inauguration ceremony of the SAIF Qinglan Fund was held. The SAIF Qinglan Fund, an essential part of the SAIF faculty support fund system, recruits and cultivates high-level academic talent and provides targeted support to junior faculty in academic research. Professor Guangshao Tu (Executive Director of the SAIF Board), as one of the fund launchers, emphasized that the Qinglan Fund was established to promote young scholars to direct their efforts in teaching and research toward advancing SAIF’s development. Professor Chun Chang introduced the fund’s operation mode and expressed his gratitude to the faculty and alumni for their support. He also stated that as a research-oriented business school, SAIF would strive to further enhance its finance discipline and research development efforts. After a comprehensive discussion, Professor Guangshao Tu and Professor Jiang Wang (Chair of Academic Council) gave their concluding remarks. Professor Tu analyzed the demands and strategic layout of SAIF's educational programs, disciplines, and market from different perspectives, including: the adaptation to social development, the relationship between finance and the real economy, and regional development. Professor Wang said that an overall strategy and a long-term perspective are indispensable in building a world-class finance school; therefore, SAIF should strive for comprehensive development in teaching, academic research, policy, and applied research in the future. He also stressed that SAIF must expand its faculty team, strengthen its research force, and establish effective mechanisms to provide strong support for continuous research output.

July 08, 2021

SAIF Qinglan Fund Established

On June 30th, the establishment ceremony of the SAIF Qinglan Fund was held. Professor Guangshao Tu (Adjunct Professor at SJTU and Executive Director of the SAIF Board) and Professor Chun Chang (Executive Dean, Professor of Finance and Huifu Chair Professor at SAIF) delivered speeches. All SAIF professors and members of the management team attended the ceremony. Professor Guangshao Tu emphasized that the Qinglan Fund was established to promote young scholars to direct their efforts in teaching and research toward advancing SAIF's academic research and contributing to its think tanks. Professor Chun Chang said in his speech that SAIF, with its top academic research and extraordinary educational programs, takes the lead in the financial disciplines in China. The SAIF Qinglan Fund, an endowment fund jointly established by Professor Tu, along with many SAIF professors and alumni, will further support SAIF's lead position in the finance arena. The SAIF Qinglan Fund, one of the funds donated to by professors, introduces and cultivates of high-level young academic talent and provides targeted support for junior faculty in academic research. It will be used for the Qinglan Research Award and the Qinglan Scholars Program, and can also be used to support junior faculty at SAIF. The Qinglan Fund has set up a sub-fund, the Qinglan-Pudong Science Investment Fund. According to fund management regulations, people and enterprises from all areas can now donate to it. Anyone who donates more than a certain amount can become a director of the fund; he or she would then also have the right to rename the sub-fund.

July 07, 2021

Cooperation Agreement Signed between SAIF and the Lin-gang Special Area

On July 3rd, the signing ceremony for the strategic cooperation agreement between the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone Lin-gang Special Area Management Committee and the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) was held at SAIF. Zhisong Zhu (Secretary of Party Working Committee at Lin-gang Special Area), Zhenbin Yang (Secretary of Party Committee at SJTU, Vice Chairman of the SAIF Board), and Shaoguang Tu (Adjunct Professor at SJTU and Executive Director of the SAIF Board) delivered speeches during the ceremony. Guohua Yuan (Chairman of Lin-gang Group) and Professor Chun Chang (Executive Dean, Professor of Finance and Huifu Chair Professor at SAIF) signed the strategic cooperation agreement on behalf of each side. The ceremony was presided over by Professor Qigui Zhu (Secretary of the Party Committee at SAIF). Management teams from both sides also attended the ceremony. Professor Zhenbin Yang emphasized in his speech that after 125 years of hard work, Shanghai Jiao Tong University has now become one of the most well-known universities in China and is now becoming also more widely known around the world. SJTU has always been in sync with the spirit of "reform, opening up, and innovation"that is found in the Lin-gang Special Area. The agreement symbolizes significant progress in cooperation between SAIF and the Lin-gang Special Area. At the end, Professor Yang expressed his congratulations and hoped that both sides would mutually benefit and that they would create a better future together. Zhisong Zhu said, "Financial development will play an essential role in the construction of a modern and open industrial system in the Lin-gang Special Area. In recent years, SAIF has made outstanding contributions to China's financial development, especially in providing talent and think tanks. Therefore, the strategic cooperation between SAIF and the Lin-gang Special Area was highly expected by the government." Professor Tu affirmed the significance of strategic cooperation in his speech as well. "The cooperation is a result of both the national and the SJTU strategic plan, and it also helps SAIF's self-development," Tu said. Moreover, he pointed out that the signing of the agreement was just the beginning. SAIF will continuously provide talent and intellectual support for the financial innovation development of the Lin-gang Special Area and the reform of China's financial system via its development. According to the agreement, both sides will cooperate comprehensively in research, advanced training, and holding forums. Both stakeholders will also make joint efforts to promote the development of the Lin-gang Special Area and to build Shanghai into an international financial center.

July 06, 2021

2021 SAIF Commencement Held

On July 3rd, the 2021 SAIF Commencement Ceremony was held in the auditorium at the Xuhui Campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). This year's event featured remarks from Qing Wu (Vice Mayor of Shanghai, Chairman of the SAIF Board) and Zhenbin Yang (Chairperson of the SJTU University Council, Vice Chairman of SAIF Board). The ceremony was also broadcast live to enable graduates and professors overseas to participate virtually. In his opening remarks, Professor Zhenbin Yang praised the remarkable achievements SAIF had made in recent years. "SAIF has effectively promoted SJTU's "First-class universities and disciplines of the world" construction and provided both talents and think tanks for the development of the Shanghai International Financial Center and the Global Science and Technology Innovation Center,"Professor Yang said. "In your new life journal, be perseverant, be honest, progress with foresight, and always strive for the prosperity of our nation," he remarked to the graduates. Vice mayor Qing Wu, in his speech, gave his best wishes to the graduates. He inspired all graduates to contribute greater efforts toward their future careers. In 2021, a total of 405 MF, MBA, EMBA, GES, and PhD students were awarded their degrees by SAIF. Included among them are the first class of Fintech Track graduates from SAIF’s flagship MF program. The Fintech graduates are heavily favored by the market; each student completes two years of systematic courses in finance, statistics, machine learning, and computer skills. The data provided by the SAIF Career Development Center shows that the placement rate of Fintech graduates is 100% and that half of them received more than three job offers. Meanwhile, the placement rate of MF General Track graduates was also 100% in 2021. Secondary market investment and research, sales and trading, consulting and investment banking are the main job functions for this year's MF graduates. By the end of June, the placement rate of 2021 full-time MBA graduates had reached nearly 95%. The top two industries they entered were asset management and investment banking or consulting (security/financial). During the ceremony, nineteen 2020 graduates and sixteen 2021 graduates received the "Shanghai Outstanding Graduate" award. Thirty-three 2020 graduates and thirty 2021 graduates received the "SJTU Outstanding Graduate"award. Shuwang Yan, a graduate representative from the EMBA program delivered an extraordinary graduation speech in which he reflected upon his own learning experience and expressed gratitude to SAIF. Three graduate donor representatives: Hong Zhu from GES 7, Hao Zhang from EMBA 2016, and Weiman Tang from MF 2019 accepted the graduation donation certificates. To encourage students with remarkable achievements, all funds from the donations will be granted as scholarships to SAIF MBA and MF students. At the ceremony, Jianjun Wang (Executive President of the Alumni Association at SAIF) warmly welcomed all graduates to join the SAIF Alumni Association. Together with the 2021 graduates, the 2020 graduates were also invited to join the commencement, which was canceled last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Professor Chun Chang, Professor Qigui Zhu, Professor Hong Yan, and Professor Feng Li awarded the graduation certificates to both 2020 and 2021 graduates and took photos with them. At present, SAIF has produced over 5000 graduates, all of whom now contribute to the progress of China's finance industry.

July 01, 2021

SAIF’s AACSB Accreditation Extended

On June 25, 2021, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) Board of Directors officially informed the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) that its accreditation had been extended for an additional five years. SAIF first earned its AACSB accreditation in 2016 and became one of the youngest accredited business schools in the world. International AACSB accredited institutions must complete an intensive peer-review process every five years to ensure continued compliance with evolving business education standards. From May 9th to May 11th, an AACSB Peer Review Team (PRT) conducted a virtual continuous improvement review on SAIF. The PRT was chaired by Professor Kalok Chan (Former Dean of the School of Business, Chairman of the Department of Finance, the Chinese University of Hong Kong), with Professor Wei-Chi Tsai (Dean, School of Business, National Chengchi University) and Professor Chae-Yeol Yang (Dean, School of Business Administration, Chonnam National University) as members. After a series of online interviews and conversations with SAIF stakeholders (including the management team, faculty, staff, students, alumni, as well as representatives of donors and employers), the PRT completed its comprehensive evaluation on SAIF's development during the past five years. These included its development strategies and goals, faculty management, intellectual contributions, educational programs, curriculum management, allocation of resources, and other aspects. After the review, the PRT applauded the outstanding achievements made by SAIF over the past five years. "SAIF has an open, friendly, and collegial culture. The school offers high-quality courses and provides students with a strong theoretical foundation, international perspectives, and local insights. Meanwhile, SAIF is quite responsive to market needs; for example, it comes up with the Fintech track for the MF program, and the Innovation Finance track for the EMBA program. In addition, its Chinese Academy of Financial Research (CAFR) fulfills an important mission of policy research and applied research, and creates research impact that can influence policy making,"stated Professor Kalok Chan, on behalf of the PRT. "Modeled after leading business schools in the world, SAIF obtained its initial AACSB accreditation only six years since its inception. The successful re-accreditation this year undoubtedly marks the recognition of our achievements in the past 12 years by the international peers. With our world-class faculty, innovative research, and leading curricula, SAIF will continue to provide finance education to the highest standards, endeavor to fulfill its mission to be a world-class institution, and make greater contributions to the financial industry development both in China and globally,"said Professor Chun Chang, SAIF Executive Dean.

June 04, 2021

SJTU Ranked 1st in Finance among Mainland Chinese Universities

Shanghai Ranking Consultancy introduced the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) 2021 on May 26, 2021. Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) and Tsinghua University ranked 1st and 2nd among mainland Chinese universities in Finance. In terms of the specific evaluation of academic indicators in Finance, SJTU ranked 1st among mainland Chinese universities with the weighted number of papers published in top journals scoring at 56.8, the average impact of papers published scoring at 81.8, and the percentage of internationally cooperative papers published scoring at 82.3. Shanghai Ranking Consultancy is a top-class organization dedicating to research on higher education intelligence and consultation. It has been the official publisher of the Academic Ranking of World Universities since 2009, and its Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) contains rankings of universities in 54 subjects. In 2021, more than 1,800 out of 4,000 universities across 93 countries and regions were listed among its rankings. GRAS rankings use a range of objective academic indicators to measure the performance of world universities in respective subjects, including: papers published, research influence, international collaboration, research quality, and international academic awards. Compared with last year, the number of universities in mainland China on the list (and the total number of their listed subjects) significantly increased by 7.5% and 11.3%, respectively, this year. In 2021, SJTU ranked among the world's top 10 in 6 subjects, with more than 40 subjects on the list in total; it ranks 1st in Marine/Ocean Engineering.

June 02, 2021

SJTU SAIF Workshop Welcomes Speech by Professor Chun Chang

On May 13, 2021, the SAIF Workshop was held for the second time in the auditorium of Tsung Dao LEE library at the Minhang Campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). Professor Chun Zhang (Executive Dean, Professor of Finance and Huifu Chair Professor at SAIF), was invited as a guest speaker to share his insights on the theme of “Excessively Loose Monetary and Fiscal Policies”. In his speech, Professor Chang analyzed the loosening trend of the international monetary and fiscal policy, which posed new challenges to both the conventional macro-finance theoretical framework and the practice of monetary and fiscal policies. He further pointed out that the model of high debt and low-interest rates had limited sustainability and would bring long-term problems, such as high inflation and deficit risks. Professor Chang then discussed why developed countries have adopted unconventional monetary and fiscal policies at this time. He emphasized that the unconventional monetary and fiscal policies could not solve the fundamental problem of development. On the contrary, it would bring a series of negative feedback loops such as increasing wealth disparity, and continuous increases for government deficit and debt ratios. These would trap countries in a vicious circle. In response to this problem, Professor Zhang put forward three approaches for China. First, we must encourage population growth, promote scientific and technological innovation, and accelerate institutional reforms. Second, we must narrow wealth disparity through precise poverty alleviation efforts. Third, we must identify the reason for the weakness in China's international finances and avoid structural risks brought about by high debt.

April 30, 2021

Professor Chao Zi published in the Journal of Financial Economics

Recently, the paper "Under-Diversification and Idiosyncratic Risk Externalities" by Professor Chao Zi, Assistant Professor of Finance at Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), was published by the top international finance journal Journal of Financial Economics (JFE). Sponsored by the School of Business at the University of Rochester, JFE is one of the Top 3 international financial journals in the world, along with Journal of Finance (JF) and Review of Financial Studies (RFS). It's a peer-reviewed academic journal covering both theoretical and empirical types of research within financial economics. The paper was co-authored by Professor Chao Zi, together with Dejanir Silva (Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Felipe S. Iachan (Professor at the EPGE Finance School in Brazil). It focuses on the topic of "Under-Diversification and Idiosyncratic Risk Externalities" and yields targeted solutions. By constructing a macro-financial model, the authors found that idiosyncratic uncertainty did cause underinvestment and excessive aggregate risk-taking, which had a significant impact upon welfare. They point out that optimal allocation could be implemented through financial regulation using a tax benefit on debt and risk-weighted capital requirements on financial intermediaries.