The “SKKU-ZJU International Conference on Economics and Finance” under the joint auspices of Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) and Zhejiang University (ZJU), both of which are world-class universities was held successfully. The conference was hosted at Sungkyunkwan University’s 600th Anniversary Hall on 10 December 2019. In order to support the construction of double first-class disciplines in the School of Economics, led by Prof. Xingguo LUO and Prof. Youshang LIANG, 10 doctoral students majoring in economics and finance were selected to go to South Korea for the joint conference during 9 December 2019 and 11 December 2019.

The conference was co-organized by the School of Economics of Zhejiang University, and the Department of Economics of Sungkyunkwan University. About 50 scholars and students from China, Korea, the United States, Japan and other countries were invited to participate and speak at the conference. The conference was supported by the Journal of Futures Markets (SSCI), Investment Analysts Journal (SSCI) and Asia-Pacific Financial Markets (SCOPUS) with publication opportunities. The conference was consisted of 1 keynote session and 8 sessions, and selected 40 high-quality research papers for presentation.

    The doctoral students from ZJU presented their research papers in the conference as following: Jinjin WANG talked about the paper “Where does the time preference inconsistency come from? Based on the perspective of real-effort task”; Shuyi LI reported the paper “Bailout Expectation and Capital Structure Adjustment: Evidence from China”; Muhammad U. Khurram presented “Association of Mutual Fund Risk Measures and Return Parameters”; Jiawei HU reported his work on “Can the option-implied skewness tell the future?”; Rui WANG gave the presentation on “The Price of Lease Asset-backed Securities in China: What Do Investors Really Care About?”; Juan HUANG presented the paper titled “Can reputation solve the ‘double-edged sword’ dilemma of medical insurance?”; Ying LIU talked about “The Effect of Separation of Prescription and Treatment on the Efficiency of Health Care Market: A Laboratory Experiment”; Yabei ZHU reported her research on “Industry Variance Risk Premium”; Beibei WANG presented the paper “Stock market liberalization and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect Program”; and Weizhuojia PENG presented the paper “Economic Policy Uncertainty and corporate Alternative Investment Behavior: Evidence from China”. Participants of each session gave valuable comments on these presented papers, providing valuable insights for speakers.

    In the keynote session, world-class scholars including Robert I. Webb (Paul Tudor Jones II Research Professor at the Mclntire School of Commerce of the University of Virginia, Editor-in-chief of Journal of Futures Markets), Sunghyun Henry Kim (Professor at Economics Department of SKKU, Editor of International Economic Journal), Jiro Akahori (Professor at Department of Mathematical Sciences & Director of Research Center for Finance of Ritsumeikan University, Editor-in-chief of Asia-Pacific Financial Markets), Qian HAN (Professor at School of Economics of Xiamen University, PhD. in Applied Economics and Finance at Cornell University), Xingguo LUO (Associate Professor at School of Economics of ZJU, Deputy Head of Department of Finance) and Jamie Coombs (Refinitiv, Singapore) spoke about their research on the recent issues and innovations in Asia-pacific financial markets and economies.

    The whole-day joint conference at Sungkyunkwan University was fully packed but enriching. It was a great academic event for the students of the School of Economics to interact with world-class scholars, polish their knowledge and gain more research skills that are practical in the world of economics and finance research.