Presented papers (presenting author in bold) include:

Session I

Session Chair: Lixin Huang (Georgia State University)

Decentralized Mining in Centralized Pools

• Authors: Will Cong (University of Chicago), Zhiguo He (University of Chicago), and Jiasun Li (George Mason University)
• Discussant: Richard Lowery (University of Texas at Austin)

Blockchain Without Waste: Proof-of-Stake

• Author: Fahad Saleh (McGill University)
• Discussant: Baozhong Yang (Georgia State University)

Session II

Session Chair: Zhen Shi (Georgia State University)

Cryptocurrency Pump-and-Dump Schemes

• Authors: Tao Li (University of Florida), Donghwa Shin (Princeton University), and Baolian Wang (University of Florida)
• Discussant: Ye Li (Ohio State University)

Economic Implications of Blockchain Platforms

• Authors: Jun Aoyagi (UC Berkeley) and Daisuke Adachi (Yale University)
• Discussant: Katrin Tinn (Imperial College)

Session III

Session Chair: Dalida Kadyrzhanova (Georgia State University)

Initial Coin Offering and Platform Building

• Authors: William Mann (UCLA) and Jiasun Li (George Mason University)
• Discussant: Doron Levit (University of Pennsylvania)

Decrypting Coin Winners: Disclosure Quality, Governance Mechanism, and Team Networks

• Authors: Xin Deng (Shanghai University of Finance and Economics), Yen-Teik Lee (Curtin Singapore), and Zhengting Zhong (Shanghai University of Finance and Economics)
• Discussant: Sabrina Howell (New York University)

Session IV

Session Chair: Mark Chen (Georgia State University)

Technological Disruptiveness and the Evolution of IPOs and Sell-Outs

• Authors: Donald Bowen (Virginia Tech), Laurent Frésard (University of Lugano), and Gerard Hoberg (University of Southern California)
• Discussant: Jack He (University of Georgia)

Corporate Venture Capital and the Boundaries of the Firm: Evidence from Machine Learning

• Author: Hongyu Shan (University of Florida)
• Discussant: Song Ma (Yale University)

Session V

Session Chair: Hadiye Aslan (Georgia State University)

Measuring Corporate Culture Using Machine Learning

• Authors: Kai Li (University of British Columbia), Feng Mai (Stevens Institute of Technology), Rui Shen (Nanyang Technological University), and Xinyan Yan (University of Dayton)
• Discussant: Sean Cao (Georgia State University)

Microstructure in the Machine Age

• Authors: David Easley (Cornell University), Marcos López de Prado (AQR Management), Maureen O’Hara (Cornell University), and Zhibai Zhang (New York University)
• Discussant: Haoxiang Zhu (MIT)

Session VI

Session Chair: Scott Murray (Georgia State University)

Thousands of Alpha Tests

• Authors: Stefano Giglio (Yale University), Yuan Liao (Rutgers University), and Dacheng Xiu (University of Chicago)
• Discussant: Simona Abis (Columbia University)

Bond Risk Premia with Machine Learning

• Authors: Daniele Bianchi (Warwick Business School), Matthias Büchner (Warwick Business School), and Andrea Tamoni (London School of Economics)
• Discussant: Zhaogang Song (Johns Hopkins University)

Keynote Speaker: Andrew Karolyi

Professor Karolyi is an internationally-known scholar in the area of investment management, with a specialization in the study of international financial markets. He has published extensively in journals in finance and economics, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics and Review of Financial Studies, and has published several books and monographs. His research has been covered extensively in print and electronic media, including The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Economist, Time, New York Times, Washington Post, Forbes, BusinessWeek, and CNBC.

Karolyi currently serves as executive editor of the Review of Financial Studies, one of the top-tier journals in finance. He is and has also served as an associate editor for a variety of journals, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Empirical Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Review of Finance and the Pacific Basin Finance Journal. He is a recipient of the Fama/DFA Prize for Capital Markets and Asset Pricing (2005), the William F. Sharpe Award for Scholarship in Finance (2001), the Journal of Empirical Finance’s Biennial Best Paper Prize (2006), the Fisher College of Business’ Pace Setter Awards for Excellence in Research and Graduate Teaching and Johnson’s Prize for Excellence in Research in 2010.

He joined Johnson in 2009, after teaching for 19 years at the Fisher College of Business of The Ohio State University. He leads various executive education programs in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia, and is actively involved in consulting with corporations, banks, investment firms, stock exchanges, and law firms. He currently chairs the board of trustees and is past president of the Financial Management Association International and has served as a director of the American Finance Association.

Karolyi received his BA (Honors) in economics from McGill University in 1983 and worked at the Bank of Canada for several years in its research department. He subsequently earned his MBA and PhD degrees in finance at the Graduate School of Business of the University of Chicago.

Call for Papers and Submissions is now closed.

Call for Papers
In recent years, FinTech, or financial technology, has been rapidly developing and reshaping business practices and the financial services industry. This has generated significant interest in advancing academic research in this important area. The Department of Finance, the Center for Economic Analysis of Risk (CEAR), and the Institute for Insight at Georgia State University, together with the Review of Financial Studies will jointly host a conference on Current Research in FinTech. The conference will be held on February 8-9, 2019 at Georgia State University Buckhead Center in Atlanta.

We invite submission of theoretical and empirical papers on, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Blockchain technology and business applications: smart contracts, distributed ledger, and consensus mechanisms
• Cryptocurrency: valuation, trading, and settlement systems
• Innovations in financing: initial coin offerings (ICOs), tokens, crowd funding, and market design
• Machine learning methods in financial economics: supervised/unsupervised learning, deep learning, artificial intelligence, and algorithmic trading
• Big data analytics: large-scale data, unstructured data (such as texts and images), and forecasting
• Regulatory issues and challenges

The submission deadline is October 1, 2018. Co-sponsorship with the Review of Financial Studies offers authors a dual submission option. The authors may choose to submit to the conference program only, or choose to submit to both the conference and the Review of Financial Studies.

Review of Financial Studies Dual Submission Option

Submissions to the conference can also be submitted to the Review of Financial Studies under its dual review system, with the same submission deadline of October 1, 2018. Authors must indicate on the conference submission website whether they are interested to have their paper considered under this dual review option with the RFS that works as follows:

• There is no charge for submissions under this program.
• Dual submissions will be reviewed by the conference program committee and will be made available for consideration by the sponsoring RFS
• Papers submitted for dual consideration must not be under review at another journal or the RFS, including as a dual-submission at another journal, nor can they be considered for dual submission if previously rejected by the RFS.
• At the discretion of the conference’s sponsoring editor of the RFS, dual submissions will be sent out for a formal referee report. If such a report is sought, then the paper’s author(s) will receive a copy of the RFS reviewer’s report.
• If the sponsoring editors decide to select the paper, authors have time until after the conference to submit their paper to the RFS.
• Papers rejected at any stage of the dual review process are not considered to have been “rejected” at the RFS. This also applies to articles sent out for formal review. Thus authors are permitted to submit a future version of their paper (unchanged, if they wish) to the RFS without prejudice.
• A paper that is being considered under the dual submission option by the conference and the RFS may not be submitted to another journal (or the RFS) until the authors have been notified.

For more details about the dual submission policy of the RFS please see http://sfs.org/dualsubmissionpolicy/.

Address

Georgia State University Buckhead Center
Tower Place 200, 3348 Peachtree Rd. NE
Atlanta, GA 30326

GPS Users

The street address of 3348 Peachtree Road is not the best landmark to use for directions. If you are using Google maps or a GPS unit, input Tower Place Drive NE 30326 (or the intersection of Tower Place Drive and Lenox Road).

Gates on Tower Place Drive

Gates on Tower Place Drive block access to our building from Piedmont between 7:00 – 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. During these times, it is imperative that you enter from the Lenox Road intersection on Tower Place Drive.

The most up to date directions can be found on the Campus Locations website

MARTA Subway:

Take the North Springs line (Red Line) to the Buckhead N7 Station; follow the first exit out of the station and turn right on Peachtree Road (away from Lenox Square Mall); turn right again immediately after the Capital City Plaza building (before Fresh 2 Order Restaurant); follow the sidewalk on the left – it will lead you around to the front entrance of Tower Place 200.

One-way Rail Rides cost $2.50. Tickets can be easily purchased from vending machines at all MARTA stations. This is by far the easiest method, and is on a direct line to Atlanta International Airport. Here is a map of the MARTA rail system.

Driving:

From SOUTH of Atlanta: Follow I-85 North to GA 400. Exit at Lenox Road (first exit, before the toll plaza). Stay in the far left lane and turn left off the exit onto Lenox Road. At the next light, turn left onto Tower Place Drive NE. (On the Border Mexican Restaurant will be located on the left.) Remain in the left lane through both stop signs. Continue straight to the Tower Place 200 parking garage.

From NORTH of Atlanta on I-85:
Take I-85 South to the North Druid Hills exit. Turn right onto North Druid Hills Road. Go through two traffic lights. Stay in the left lane and continue straight onto E. Roxboro Road at the split. Turn left onto Peachtree Road. Turn right onto Lenox Road/Paul Coverdell Memorial Parkway. After you cross GA 400, turn left at the first light onto Tower Place Drive NE. (On the Border Mexican Restaurant will be located on the left.) Remain in the left lane through both stop signs. Continue straight to the entrance of the Tower Place 200 parking garage.

From NORTH of Atlanta on I-75:
From I-75 South, take Exit 251 for I-85 North toward Greenville. Merge onto I-85. Take Exit 87 onto GA-400 N toward Buckhead. Take the Lenox Road exit and turn left. Turn left at the first light onto Tower Place Drive NE. (On the Border Mexican Restaurant will be located on the left.) Remain in the left lane through both stop signs. Continue straight to the entrance of the Tower Place 200 parking garage.

From NORTH of Atlanta on GA-400:
Take 400 South. Follow Exit #2 GA 141 Connector to Buckhead. Make a right onto Lenox Road. At the next light, turn left onto Tower Place Drive NE. (On the Border Mexican Restaurant will be located on the left.) Remain in the left lane through both stop signs. Continue straight to the entrance of the Tower Place 200 parking garage.

From Peachtree/Piedmont Roads:
From Peachtree, turn north on Piedmont Rd. (If coming south on Peachtree, turn right on Piedmont. If coming north on Peachtree, turn left on Piedmont.) From Piedmont Road, turn onto Lenox Road. At the first light, turn right onto Tower Place Drive NE. (You will see On The Border Mexican Restaurant as a landmark.) Remain in the left lane through both stop signs. Continue straight to the entrance of the Tower Place 200 parking garage.

Parking

The Tower Place 200 parking deck is a paid deck. Validation tickets will be arranged for presenters, discussants, and registered conference participants in this garage only. We cannot validate parking for any other garages. An attendant is normally on duty until 8 pm on weekdays only. A payment machine is available after hours.

After you have parked, take the garage elevator down to the ground level – this will lead you directly into the lobby of Tower Place 200, and then take the building’s elevators to the 12^th Floor.

Unless otherwise dictated by the conference organizers, all guests are responsible for their own hotel bookings. The following hotels are near the conference venue.

• Courtyard by Marriott— preferred hotel, within a 5-minute walk — Phone: 404-869-0818
• DoubleTree by Hilton— within a 5-minute walk — Phone: 404-23-1234
• Springhill Suites— <1 mile away — Phone: 404-844-4800
• AC Hotel Buckhead (A Marriott property)— <1 mile away — Phone: 470-231-3030
• Intercontinental— <1 mile away — Phone: 404-946-9111