The Department of Finance in the Faculty of Business and Economics at The University of Melbourne is pleased to continue its annual conference series: Finance Down Under: Building on the Best from the Cellars of Finance. The conference will be held in-person and will take place in Melbourne, Australia, between February 26th and February 28th, 2026.
Overview
We invite submissions that embody the best in current empirical and theoretical research. We welcome papers in asset pricing, corporate finance and all other areas of finance. The general academic sessions will be comprised of papers from all areas. The conference selection committee includes eminent scholars in every facet of finance. With the help of the selection committee, we strive to provide a conference program that is internationally renowned for excellent presentations, discussions, and keynote speeches.
A unique feature of the program is that we honour 'vintage' research that has inspired recent advances and withstood the test of time. In 2026, we will celebrate the body of work by Professor René Stulz of The Ohio State University, given its impact in academia, industry and among regulators. We are honoured to have Professor Stulz and Professor John Griffin of the University of Texas at Austin as our keynote speakers.
This year's conference will feature a fireside chat with Professor Stulz examining the eclipse of public markets, to be delivered during the opening reception on Thursday evening of February 26th.
This year's conference will feature a session on gender finance, sponsored by the Gender Lab, a research center at Melbourne University's Faculty of Business and Economics specializing in gender economics and finance. Papers for this session will be considered as part of the general call for papers. For more details, please contact Marina Gertsberg (mgertsberg@unimelb.edu.au).
In addition to submissions in all other areas, we encourage submissions related to the contributions by Professor Stulz.
Paper Submission Procedure
The deadline for paper submissions is midnight US EST October 9, 2025. Papers should be submitted electronically at http://editorialexpress.com/conference/FDU2026. A submission fee of US$100 will be required for each submission.
Papers will be reviewed by members of the conference selection committee, and authors of selected papers will be notified in November 2025. For further questions, please contact our administrative liaisons at fdu-conference@unimelb.edu.au .
Awards
- The J Spencer Martin Best Paper Award, with a prize of A$4,000.
- The Impact Paper Award. This award will be presented, with a prize of A$1,500, to a paper that has relevance to the Asia-Pacific region and/or to the asset management industry. To be considered for this award, authors need to select the option when submitting their papers.
We hope that you can join us in 2026 in delightful late-summer Melbourne.
FDU Organising Committee
Federico Nardari (Chair), Carole Comerton-Forde, Eduard Inozemtsev and Qi Zeng
Department of Finance
Faculty of Business & Economics
The University of Melbourne Victoria 3010 AUSTRALIA
Conference Sessions at a Glance
Please note date stamp on PDF program to ensure that you have most up to date version
Day 1 - Thursday 26 February |
The Old Quadrangle Building (North Entrance), Building 150, The University of Melbourne Map |
| Time | Session |
| 4:45pm - 5:30pm | Registration, Welcome drinks and canapes |
| 5:30pm - 6:30pm | A Fireside Chat: The Evolution of Private and Public Markets Professor René M. Stulz, The Ohio State University Mark Burgess, Australian Retirement Trust Moderator: Professor Carole Comerton-Forde, The University of Melbourne |
| 6:30pm - 7:30pm | A Selection of Canapes and Drinks |
Day 2 - Friday 27 February |
The Views, Life Saving Victoria, 200 The Boulevard, Port Melbourne VIC 3207 Map |
| Time | Session | |||||||||||||||||||
| 9:30am – 10:00am | Registration and Morning Tea for International Women's Day | |||||||||||||||||||
| 10:00am – 11:15am |
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| 11:15am-11:30am | Mini Break | |||||||||||||||||||
| 11:30am – 1:00pm | Keynote Address - René M. Stulz The Ohio State University Venue: Ian Potter Room | |||||||||||||||||||
| 1:00pm - 2:30pm | Lunch | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2:30pm – 3:45pm |
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| 3:45pm - 4:30pm | Afternoon Refreshments | |||||||||||||||||||
| 4:30pm – 5:45pm |
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Day 3 - Saturday 28 February |
The University of Melbourne - Woodward Conference Centre, Law Building, 10th Floor, 185 Pelham Street, Carlton VIC 3010 Map |
| Time | Session | ||||||||||||
| 9:00am - 9:30am | Morning Tea | ||||||||||||
| Plenary Sessions - Level 10, Woodward Conference Centre | |||||||||||||
| Session Chair: Federico Nardari, The University of Melbourne | |||||||||||||
| 9:30am - 10:45am | Corporate Liquidity Supply from Non-Bank Intermediaries and the Real Effects of Factoring Henry Zhang CUHK Business School Discussant: Niklas Amber Sveriges Riksbank (Central Bank of Sweden) | ||||||||||||
Bond Demand and the Yield-Exchange Rate Nexus: Risk Premium vs. Convenience Yield Dongchen Zou Indiana University Discussant: Pasquale Della Corte Imperial Business School, Imperial College London | |||||||||||||
| 10:45am-11:00am | Mini Break | ||||||||||||
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11:00am - 12:30pm | Keynote Address - John M. Griffin, McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas | ||||||||||||
| 12:30pm - 1:30pm | Lunch | ||||||||||||
| 1:30pm - 1:45pm | Presentation of Awards | ||||||||||||
| 2:00pm - 11:00pm | Social Activity - Cape Schanck Lighthouse Reserve, Sculpture Park and Dinner in Honour of Professor Spencer Martin The social activity is made possible by a generous donation from Elizabeth Hering, sister of the late Professor Spencer Martin. Limited spaces area available.
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| End of Program (Please note program is subject to change) | |||||||||||||
The Evolution of Private and Public Markets
The fireside chat will examine The Evolution of Public and Private Markets, bringing together leading academic and practitioner perspectives on shifting capital markets dynamics globally and in Australia. The discussion will feature Professor René Stultz (The Ohio State University) and Mark Burgess, Chair of the Investment Committee and Director of Australian Retirement Trust and will be moderated by Professor Carole Comerton-Forde (University of Melbourne). The conversation will explore academic research on public and private market dynamics, the drivers of recent shifts in capital allocation and expected future developments, with particular attention to the role of superannuation funds, private wealth, regulation and governance in shaping market outcomes.
Date and Location:
The fireside chat will be held on 26 February at The Old Quadrangle Building (North Entrance), Building 150, The University of Melbourne (Map.)
Agenda:
| 4:45pm - 5:30pm | Registration, Welcome Drinks & Canapes |
| 5:30pm - 6:30pm | Fireside Chat: The Evolution of Private and Public Markets |
| 6:30pm - 7:30pm | Drinks and Canapes |
Registration:
Registration for the Fireside Chat is available here.
Note: Conference attendees do not need to register separately for the Fireside Chat. The Fireside Chat registration link is for those who wish to attend only the Fireside Chat on Thursday evening. Registration for the whole conference is here.
Professor René M. Stulz
René M. Stulz is the Everett D. Reese Chair of Banking and Monetary Economics and the Director of the Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics at The Ohio State University. He has also taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago, and the University of Rochester. He received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was awarded a Marvin Bower Fellowship from the Harvard Business School, a Doctorat Honoris Causa from the University of Neuchâtel, and the Risk Manager of the Year Award of the Global Association of Risk Professionals. In 2004, the magazine Treasury and Risk Management named him one of the 100 most influential people in finance. Reuters includes him in its list of the world’s most influential scientific minds. He is a past president of the American Finance Association and of the Western Finance Association, and a fellow of the American Finance Association, the European Corporate Governance Institute, the Financial Management Association, and the Wharton Financial Institutions Center.
René M. Stulz was the editor of the Journal of Finance, the leading academic publication in the field of finance, for twelve years, and co-editor of the Journal of Financial Economics for five years. He is on the editorial board of more than ten academic and practitioner journals. Further, he is a member of the Asset Pricing and Corporate Finance Programs and the director of the Risk of Financial Institutions Group of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
He has published more than one hundred papers in finance and economics journals, including the Journal of Political Economy, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Finance, the Review of Financial Studies, and the Harvard Business Review. He is the author of a textbook titled Risk Management and Derivatives, a co-author of the Squam Lake Report: Fixing the Financial System, and has edited several books, including two volumes of the Handbook of the Economics of Finance.
René M. Stulz has taught in executive development programs in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. He has consulted for major financial institutions as well as for non-financial firms, law firms, the New York Stock Exchange, the IMF, and the World Bank, and testified in federal and state courts as well as in arbitrations. He has served on bank boards, on the board of an asset management company, and as a member and as vice-chair of the Board of Trustees of the Global Association of Risk Professionals.
Professor John M. Griffin
Professor John M. Griffin is the James A. Elkins Centennial Chair in Finance at McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Griffin is a leading forensic finance expert, specializing in understanding the role of potentially illegal, illicit, or immoral actions in financial markets. His research has analyzed potential fraud related to cryptocurrencies, PPP fraud, CMBS/MBS, CLOs, the 2008-2009 financial crisis, bonds and structured finance products, credit ratings, derivatives, insider trading, market manipulation, investment bank disclosures, financial market anomalies and hedge funds. He has published over 35 papers in the top finance and economics journals and is widely cited. He has over 12,300 Google Scholar citations and over 112,000 ssrn.com, making him among the top 200 most downloaded SSRN authors. His papers have won top finance awards and is often cited in regulatory rulemaking. His research has been profiled in top media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg, CNN, Fortune, Forbes, and over 800 other news outlets around the world.
Professor Griffin is the CEO of Integra FEC, Integra Research Group, and Integra MED Analytics, which specialize in Forensic Investigations. Integra FEC and Professor Griffin have consulted for various entities including the US and state DOJs, the SEC, the CFTC, and various parties. He is a past President and Vice-President of the Western Finance Association, one of the leading finance associations, as well as a past President and Vice-President of the Society of Financial Studies SFS Cavalcade, and a former director of the Financial Management Association and Western Finance Association. He has also been a visiting professor at Harvard Business School, Yale School of Management, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
2026 Award Winners
The Spencer Martin Best Paper Award | AUD$4,000 |
Institutional Investors’ Subjective Risk Premia: Time Variation and Disagreement Spencer Couts, University of Southern California Andrei Goncalves; Ohio State University Yicheng Liu; Ohio State University Johnathan Loudis; University of Notre Dame |
Impact Paper Award | AUD$1,500This award is presented to a paper that has relevance to the Asia-Pacific region and/or to the asset management industry. |
When Public Information Goes Private: Analyst Careers and Market Efficiency Christoph Schiller; Ohio State University |