The 2026 HKUST Finance Symposium

Program

May 11

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Time	Program
8:30 – 9:00 9:00 – 9:10	Registration, Coffee, and Light Refreshments Opening Remarks
Session 1:	Household Finance
9:10 – 10:50	Chair: Alminas Zaldokas (NUS) Denied: Racial Disparities in Insurance Claims Avantika Pal (UIUC) Discussant: João Cocco (LBS) Self‑Control and Commitment in Consumer Credit Markets Ke Shi (SAIF) Discussant: Kasper Meisner Nielsen (Copenhagen Business School)
10:50 – 11:10	Coffee Break
Session 2:	Provider Market Power
11:10 – 12:00	Chair: Shyiang Huang (HKU) Default Options and Market Power: Evidence from Target‑Date Funds Hanbin Yang (LBS) Discussant: Wenxi Jiang (CUHK)
12:00 – 13:30	Lunch
Keynote Address:
13:30 – 14:30	Robert M. Townsend (MIT)
14:30 – 14:50	Coffee Break
Session 3:	Financing and Institutional Design
14:50 – 16:30	Chair: Kai Li (PBC Tsinghua) Financing Nonprofits Stefan Zeume (UIUC) Discussant: Ilona Babenko (Arizona State University) Collateral Law and Enforcement Risk: Evidence from Native American Reservations Leo Leitzinger (Goethe University Frankfurt) Discussant: Song Ma (Yale)
16:30 – 18:30 19:00	Boat Cruise Dinner

May 12

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Time	Program
8:30 – 9:00	Coffee and Light Refreshments
Session 4:	Government Debt and Asset Pricing
9:00 – 10:40	Chair: Chu Zhang (HKUST) The Government‑Led Credit Cycle in China’s LGFV Bonds and the Real Effects Zhe Geng (Fudan University) Discussant: Eyub Yegen (HKUST) Auctions, Announcements, and Abnormal Returns Ingomar Krohn (BIS) Discussant: Thomas Andreas Maurer (HKU)
10:40 – 11:00	Coffee Break
Session 5:	Innovation and Entrepreneurship
11:00 – 11:50	Chair: Jun Pan (SAIF) Generative AI and Entrepreneurship Abhinav Gupta (UNC) Discussant: Bo Bian (UBC)
11:50 – 13:40	Lunch
Keynote Address:
13:40 – 14:40	Philipp Schnabl (NYU)
14:40 – 15:00	Coffee Break
Session 6:	The Impact of Regulation
15:00 – 16:40	Chair: Kalok Chan (CityU) Contagious Deregulation Joseph Kalmenovitz (University of Rochester) Discussant: Yufeng Wu (Ohio State) Regulatory Arbitrage Within the Firm Shohini Kundu (UCLA) Discussant: Rik Sen (University of Georgia)
17:00 18:00	Transfer to Central Cocktails and Dinner