6th annual PhD workshop "Financial Markets and Corporate Strategies: Comparative Studies"

20th April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development

National Research University Higher School of Economics Moscow, Russia.

Wednesday, April 13 | 10:00–18:15 o’clock | Place: 11 Myasnitskaya Street, Room 428

The PhD workshop "Financial Markets and Corporate Strategies: Comparative Studies" was organized by the School of Finance of National Research University Higher School of Economics Moscow and moderated by Professor Irina Ivashkovskaya where Professor Irina V. Ivashkovskaya and Professor Alexander M. Karminsky provided detailed feedback to presenters. Key note speaker Elena Beccalli who is a Professor of Banking and Dean of School of Banking, Finance and Insurance at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan (Italy) spoke on “Economies of scale and scope in EU banking” and shared her comments and suggestions with authors of the papers and proposals. PhD students from universities of different countries and regions presented their research on various topics.

The main objective of the workshop was to develop academic networks and stimulate exchange between young researchers. PhD students were provided 20 minutes for presentations and received detailed feedback from senior academics in the field. The best papers from the workshop will be published in academic journal ‘Journal of Corporate Finance Research’. The journal is included in Web of Science Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) and is one of the best academic journals of Russia.

This year PhD students of the following universities presented: Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation (Russia), NRU Higher School of Economics (Russia), St Petersburg University (Russia), NRU South Ural State University (Russia), University of Tyumen (Russia), Ghent University (Belgium), University of Massachusetts (USA).

The workshop included four sessions where first session was exclusively dedicated to Introduction and to key note speaker Professor Beccalli. Professor Ivashkovskaya opened the workshop by providing the introduction to the workshop and welcomed Professor Beccalli. Prof. Beccalli shared her research on “Economies of scale and scope in EU banking”. Prof. Beccalli emphasized that there is no evidence of economies of scale in US and EU and economies of scale are experienced by largest banks. In a response to question from a doctoral student Prof. Beccalli mentioned that a very high Tier I is also not healthy for banks as it causes decrease in liquidity. Professor also mentioned that Basel III encourages banks to increase liquidity.

Session 2 had four presentations by Z. Ybrayev (University of Massachusetts) Distributional Consequences of Monetary Policy in Emerging Economies, M. Fomin GSOM (SPbU) Modelling optimal capital structure: risk-return approach, N. Redkin (University of Tyumen) Investment portfolio optimization: behavioral theory approach on the example of Russian stock market, and M. Tkachenko (HSE) Comparative Efficiency of Approaches to Structured Basket Notes Pricing. Discussants A. Karminsky, M. Kokoreva, and Y. Dranev provided productive feedback to authors.

Session 3 contained five presentations by I. Samarin (Ghent University) Innovation, Subsidies and Heterogeneity in Firm Performance: Evidence from Horizon 2020, A. Dalal (HSE - St. Petersburg) Islamic Financial Instruments for Funding Innovation Projects,O. Guseva (HSE) Startups in Russia: ownership vs. performance, N. Mostovaya (University of Tyumen) Theoretical and Practical Aspects of "Green" Lending, and A. Shaydurova (Financial University) Investment Attractiveness of «Green» Financial Instruments and development of «Green» financial system in Russia. Discussants M. Molodchik, P. Malyshev, V. Vinogradova, and I. Ivashkovskaya commented and provided suggestions to authors.

In a last Session I. Zemskova (Financial University) Impact of ecological rankings on stock price, A. Fatkin (SUSU) The impact of regional banks on small and medium businesses in Russian regions, G. Georgiev (Ural Federal University) Chinese Stock Market Crashes, and H. Guiyu (SUSU) Case study Chelyabinsk and Yiwu regional economic cooperation of light industry. Discussants V. Vinogradova and A. Karminsky provided comments and suggestions to authors for improvement.

To the end of the workshop Prof. Ivashkovskaya introduced Journal of Corporate Finance Research of HSE and briefed on the possibilities of internships at HSE and School of Finance for students of various stages. Professor encouraged students to cooperate in research and academic activities and share their experience on workshop participation and develop further and strengthen the academic relationships. In a special note Prof. Ivashkovskaya and Prof. Beccalli agreed on to strengthen cooperation between School of Finance of National Research University Higher School of Economics Moscow and School of Banking, Finance and Insurance of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan. They stressed the need to have profound communication with Mathematical Departments of both Universities so to incorporate mathematical models in banking and finance research. Prof. Ivashkovskaya closed the workshop by thanking participants for their active attendance.

This report was generated by Muddassar R. Malik. Personal notes, workshop program, and presentations were considered in writing this report. For any further related queries on this report should be addressed to Muddassar R. Malik at muddassar.r.malik@utu.fi.