Organizations and Markets

CFP: “Law, Economics, and Finance”

25 May 2010 at 10:49 pm Peter G. Klein 1 comment

| Peter Klein |

Mike Jensen keynotes this September 2010 conference at York University in Toronto on the links between ethics and finance:

As the world economy struggles out of the financially induced recession, the concept of ethical or socially responsible investment, along with corresponding calls for regulation, will play an increasingly important role in the study of finance for both privately held and publicly traded companies. While there has been a growing literature on law and finance, largely through cross-country studies of publicly traded companies, with somewhat less work on the ethics and finance of publicly traded companies, there has been comparatively little work at the intersection of these topics. As well, there has been comparatively little work on the intersection between law and finance and/or between the ethics and finance of privately held companies. We believe this gap needs to be filled.

The submission deadline is 1 June, so get your manuscripts ready. Full details below the fold:

Joint Special Issue Conference on Law, Ethics, and Finance

European Journal of Finance
Journal of Business Ethics
September 16-18, 2010

Keynote Speaker: Michael Jensen, Harvard Business School

Organizers:
Robert Cressy, Birmingham Business School
Douglas Cumming, Schulich School of Business, York University
Christine Mallin, Birmingham Business School

Rationale

As the world economy struggles out of the financially induced recession, the concept of ethical or socially responsible investment, along with corresponding calls for regulation, will play an increasingly important role in the study of finance for both privately held and publicly traded companies. While there has been a growing literature on law and finance, largely through cross-country studies of publicly traded companies, with somewhat less work on the ethics and finance of publicly traded companies, there has been comparatively little work at the intersection of these topics. As well, there has been comparatively little work on the intersection between law and finance and/or between the ethics and finance of privately held companies. We believe this gap needs to be filled.

The search for improved ethics, corporate governance, transparency and regulation of business and finance is certain to increase. Future investors are likely to focus on investing in firms where an entrepreneurial flare is combined with a culture of integrity in both publicly traded and privately held firms. Such firms will be likely to display a sense of ethics in their everyday operations and in longer term, more strategic decision-making. However, it is essential not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Entrepreneurship, industrial restructuring and innovation are essential to a competitive economy and economic welfare. This international conference will provide a timely debate on these important issues. The conference also provides a publication outlet for the best papers; two prominent journals (the Journal of Business Ethics and the European Journal of Finance) have both offered to publish special issues for a selection of the best conference papers.

Research Questions

Some research questions that contributors to the conference might address are:

• What is ethical corporate governance? Can regulation be designed to enhance ethical corporate governance?
• Is the concept of ethical corporate governance useful? E.g. can it be operationalised and embodied in regulatory regimes?
• If so, does doing so damage economic efficiency? And What are the moral implications of it happening?
• How should investment valuation be ethically performed in the face of uncertainty (versus risk) about future cash flow streams? Are existing methods of valuation (NPV, Comparables, Real options, etc) fit for purpose?
• To what extent has the failure of regulation, e.g. of the banks, been a major contributor to the current financial and economic crisis? For example, should offbalance sheet accounting be regulated? Should there be a maximum size for banks to avoid the moral hazard implied by the ‘too big to fail’ syndrome?
• In view of recent criticism of bank managers’ bonuses as being geared to excessive risk-taking, how should such managers ideally be remunerated? Do salaries and bonuses of managers currently contribute to irresponsible financial policies that have resulted in the crisis?
• To what extent do government bailouts exacerbate moral hazard problems of financial institutions?
• How effective are rules governing financial intermediaries in different institutional settings across countries?
• Are venture capital (early stage external equity investment) and private equity (buyouts) important sources of improved economic efficiency or do they merely help fuel global asset bubbles?
• Can the alleged superior governance of private equity be applied to banks to make them run better?
• Do venture capital and private equity increase economic inequality? If so, would a more ethical system of governance mitigate this?
• Do ethical entrepreneurship and venture capital investment enjoy different levels of success across countries? If so, what are its implications of this for societies with more ethical investors?
• What types of regulation are appropriate for alternative investments, such as venture capital, private equity and hedge funds? How effective are existing forms of regulation?
• How do the returns to social entrepreneurship and/or ethical publicly listed funds compare across countries?
• Is misrepresentation and fraud more pronounced in different countries and in different legal contexts?
• Is ‘good’ governance linked to increased returns to social entrepreneurship?
• Can ethics and governance help to overcome problems of corruption in developing countries?
• Related research questions on both publicly traded and privately held institutions are welcome.

The Review Process

All papers will be externally blind reviewed according to standard European Journal of Finance and Journal of Business Ethics policy, following which authors will be invited to present their papers at a special issue conference. Papers are to be submitted to Douglas Cumming at: dcumming@schulich.yorku.ca with the subject heading “EJFJBE Special Issue Conference on Law, Ethics and Finance” In your submissions, please indicate whether you want your paper to be considered forthe European Journal of Finance or the Journal of Business Ethics.

Key Dates

To aid in the development of papers, a two-day special issue conference will be held at York University, Toronto, Canada on September 16-18, 2010. The special issue conference will begin on Thursday September 16 with an evening reception, followed by conference paper presentations on September 17 and 18.

Deadline for submission to the Special Issue Conference is June 1, 2010. Authors will be notified about acceptance to the special issue conference by July 15, 2010. Acceptance to the special issue conference does not guarantee acceptance in one of the special issues. The conference is intended to aid the development of the papers for the special issues.

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Entry filed under: - Klein -, Conferences, Corporate Governance, Entrepreneurship, Financial Markets, Theory of the Firm.