HKU Jockey Club Enterprise Sustainability Global Research Institute
World-Class Hub for Sustainability
4th HKU Summer Finance Conference
Hong Kong | May 14-15, 2026
The 4th HKU Summer Finance Conference brings together leading scholars to present and discuss cutting-edge research in finance, corporate governance, and sustainability.
May 14–15, 2026 · The University of Hong Kong
May 14, 2026 – Day 1
| Time | Programme |
|---|---|
| 09:00 – 09:15 | Registration |
| 09:15 – 09:25 | Welcome and Opening Remarks |
| Session 1 – Chair: Stefan Ruenzi (University of Mannheim) | |
| 09:25 – 10:05 | Shaojun Zhang (The University of British Columbia / The Ohio State University) Beyond Brown: Oil Shocks and Carbon Premium |
| 10:05 – 10:45 | Maxime Couvert (The University of Hong Kong) The AI Proxy Advisor |
| 10:45 – 11:05 | Break |
| 11:05 – 11:45 | Yang Song (University of Washington) Same Dollar, Different Impact: Investor Flows are Not Equally Price-Moving |
| 11:45 – 12:25 | Hannes Wagner (Bocconi University and ECGI) Controlled Firms, Preferences, and Carbon Emissions |
| 12:25 – 13:45 | Lunch |
| Session 2 – Chair: Ekaterina Volkova (The University of Melbourne) | |
| 13:45 – 14:00 | Alminas Zaldokas (National University of Singapore and ECGI) Geopolitical Pressure, Consumer Demand, and Corporate Responses |
| 14:00 – 14:15 | Julian Nowag (The University of Hong Kong) Antitrust and ESG in Finance: Risks, Possibilities, and Political Pushback |
| 14:15 – 14:30 | Denis Sosyura (Arizona State University and ECGI) The Liberal Tilt of Financial Regulators |
| 14:30 – 14:45 | Elvira Sojli (University of New South Wales) Goods, Services and Bundling in Firms |
| 14:45 – 15:05 | Break |
| Session 3 – Best Working Paper | |
| 15:05 – 15:10 | Best Working Paper Award Announcement |
| 15:10 – 15:50 | Best Working Paper Award Presentation 1 |
| 15:50 – 16:30 | Best Working Paper Award Presentation 2 |
| 16:30 – 16:50 | Break |
| Session 4 – Chair: Jianfeng Hu (Singapore Management University) | |
| 16:50 – 17:05 | Gloria Yu (Singapore Management University) One Size Does Not Fit All: Contract Design in FinTech Lending |
| 17:05 – 17:20 | Yizhou Xiao (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) Designing Index Provision |
| 17:20 – 17:35 | Jaewon Choi (Seoul National University) De-biasing Retail Structured Products: A Field Experiment on Nudge Interventions |
| 18:00 | Dinner |
May 15, 2026 – Day 2
| Time | Programme |
|---|---|
| 09:00 – 09:15 | Coffee Reception |
| Session 5 – Chair: Vidhan Goyal (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) | |
| 09:15 – 09:55 | Guojun He (The University of Hong Kong) Market vs. Planning: Emission Abatement under Incomplete Information and with Local Externalities |
| 09:55 – 10:35 | Alan Kwan (The University of Hong Kong) The Longs and Shorts of Hedge Funds |
| 10:35 – 11:15 | Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi (University of Mannheim and ECGI) The Motherhood Penalty in the Mutual Fund Industry |
| 11:15 – 11:45 | Break |
| Session 6 – Chair: Tianyue Ruan (National University of Singapore) | |
| 11:45 – 12:00 | Fangzhou Lu (The University of Hong Kong) From Faces to Finance: AI Measurement of Promotion Pressure and Health Costs in Public Office |
| 12:00 – 12:15 | Arkodipta Sarkar (National University of Singapore) Economic Opportunity Costs: Banking Access and Educational (Dis)Investment |
| 12:15 – 12:30 | Mingzhu Tai (The University of Hong Kong) Technology-Driven Human Capital Risk and Household Financial Decisions |
| 12:30 – 12:45 | Jian Zhang (The University of Hong Kong) A Tale of Two Zoos: Machine Learning Insights on Fifteen Million Retail Investors |
| 12:45 – 14:30 | Lunch |
| Session 7 – Chair: Lai Wei (Lingnan University) | |
| 14:30 – 15:10 | Ran Duchin (Boston College) Interlocked Benchmarking: How Do Directors Evaluate CEOs Across Multiple Boards? |
| 15:10 – 15:50 | Jarrad Harford (University of Washington and ECGI) The Value of Corporate Patent Utilization |