Chennai, Tuesday, 20 June 2023. The fourth edition of the Research Symposium on Finance and Economics (RSFE) 2023 organised by IFMR Graduate School of Business (GSB) at Krea University was a resounding success and witnessed pivotal discourses and presentations on key emerging issues across the globe in the domains of Finance and Economics.

A three-day event, held from 14-16 June, RSFE 2023 was a true milestone for remarkable research showcase from across the globe, with more than a 100 research papers presented from over 20 countries and more than 50 prestigious institutions of subject matter repute.

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The 12 eminent keynote speakers included – Prof Jeffrey M Wooldridge (Michigan State University, US), Prof Tom Smith (Macquarie University, Australia), Prof Bart Lambrecht (University of Cambridge, UK), Prof Chandrasekhar Krishnamurti (the University of South Australia Business School, Australia), Prof Nadya Malenko (University of Michigan, US), Prof Robert Faff (Professorial Fellow at Bond University and Emeritus Professor at UQ, Australia), Prof Julian Franks (London Business School, UK), Prof Nandini Gupta (Indiana University, US), Prof Andrew Ellul (Indiana University, US), Prof Ann Sardesai (CQ University Australia, Sydney), Prof Kenneth R French (Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, US), and Prof Suresh Sundaresan (Columbia Business School, US). Key stalwarts from the world of Finance and Economics shared deep insights into issues that are re-shaping the domains today.

A forum for discussion and deliberation on emerging issues in Finance and Economics, the Symposium witnessed hundreds of researchers from India and abroad presenting high-quality research papers in the areas of Finance and Economics, including Corporate Finance and Governance, Financial Markets, Risk Management, Corporate Bonds and Debt, Agriculture and Credit, International Financial Market, Sustainable investing and Investment Management, Earnings Management, Applied Microeconomics, Market Structure, Efficiency and Regulation, Banking, ESG and CSR, Asset Pricing, Derivatives and Risk Management, Portfolio Management, and much more.

As a precursor to RSFE 2023 a Pre-Symposium Workshop, Causal Inference in Empirical Finance and Accounting Pandemic on Firms’ Policies, was conducted to introduce and enrich participants’ understanding of empirical methods for causal interference in empirical corporate finance, economics and accounting.

In the inaugural and Keynote Lecture Prof Jeffrey M Wooldridge, University Distinguished Professor, Department of Economics, College of Social Sciences, Michigan State University, USA took audience through his lecture, titled Recent Advances in Difference-in-Differences (DiD) Estimation with Staggered

Interventions. Prof Wooldridge advocated for a “staggered intervention approach”, which improves the quality of comparison groups and can lead to more accurate impact estimates. This approach has important implications for research in academia, businesses, and government policy.

Prof Bart Lambrecht, Professor of Finance, Director of the Cambridge Centre for Finance, Director of the Cambridge Endowment for Research in Finance, Fellow Commoner of Queen’ss College, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, UK, delivered a Keynote Lecture, One for All: Resolving Tensions between Heterogeneous Investors in a Startup.

Prof Lambrecht indicated, “A central planner (such as a company director), acting on behalf of all heterogeneous shareholders, can reach the first-best outcome. Diversity of contracts is a solution to (not cause of) tensions between heterogeneous shareholders. A dynamic investment policy and ‘cap table’ with a rich diversity of equity contracts resolve tensions within heterogeneous shareholders, while the ‘cap table’ of mature startups may become unwieldy, providing a rationale for IPO.”

Prof Julian Franks, Professor of Finance, Alexander M. Knaster Chair, Fellow of the British Academy London Business School, UK explored the concept of private meetings and their impact on fund managers’ trading strategies in his Keynote Lecture. By utilising Artificial Intelligence tools to analyse meeting summaries, he delved into whether fund managers who trade based on private information gained from these meetings achieve abnormal or excess returns. Prof Franks indicated a noteworthy result that meetings generating private information also resulted in more profitable trades. In another Keynote Lecture, Prof Kenneth R French, Roth Family Distinguished Professor of Finance, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, USA spoke on House Prices and Rent shared how if monthly house price fluctuations in metropolitan areas do not correspond to future rents, it can complicate rent forecasts using price-rent ratios and past house price changes.

During the inaugural ceremony Prof Lakshmi Kumar, Dean IFMR GSB sent a message to all budding researchers, “As researchers, we need to step back a bit and ask ourselves why we do research? Is research just a personal agenda or more? For research, first comes curiosity, and the art of questioning or arguing, followed by the need for analytical ability and foresight, followed by immense determination and the will to try again and again. Collaboration leads to better research, there is a need to sit and discuss outputs with a larger set of people. Last but not least, the ability to communicate the idea well is vital for credibility. And today, it is also extremely important to communicate how ethics is an important element, even within Economics and Finance.”

Prof Sivakumar Srinivasan, the Dean of Research at Krea University, while addressing the participants of RSFE 2023 emphasised the University’s belief that Finance and Economics are interconnected disciplines, and that Research Symposiums like this one is essential for advancing our understanding of the global economy and developing innovative solutions to complex problems.

Prof Praveen Bhagawan, Finance Area Chair at IFMR GSB, and the Chair of RSFE 2023, welcomed the keynote speakers, paper presenters, discussants, technical session chairs, scientific committee members, PhD scholars, and all other external participants of RSFE 2023. During his welcome address, he wished everyone a productive and engaging symposium and shared that the Research Symposium, has become bigger and better this year, with around 100 presentations from participants across the globe and several distinguished lectures by eminent academicians.

RSFE 2022 concluded with the presentation of the Best Paper Awards in the areas of Finance and Economics.

About IFMR GSB at Krea University: 

Propelled by the 50 years strong legacy of IFMR and in line with Krea University’s ethos of re-imagining education empowered by the unique Interwoven Learning, IFMR Graduate School of Business is preparing impactful and effective business leaders who can solve the problems of the future. Having evolved from a research- based institution to a full-fledged business school IFMR GSB’s curriculum blends a mix of theory with simulated real-life exposure and endeavours to shape business practices through inventive, sharp thinking and cutting-edge research. Porous boundaries bring the real world to the classroom and enable students to gain an immersive learning environment, aided by programmes, internships, workshops and sessions in collaboration with diverse global institutes and eminent speakers from varied fields. IFMR GSB offers a full-time MBA programme, 5 year integrated MBA- BBA programme, executive and management development programmes for experienced professionals and PhD programme.

Source: Outreach Team, IFMR GSB, Krea University.