Finance Down Under Conference
Date
From: Friday February 27, 2026, 3:30 pm
To: Friday February 27, 2026, 5:00 pm
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
Submissions were invited that embody the best in current empirical and theoretical research. 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.
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.
Conference Fees (subject to change)
| Attendee Type | Cost (AUD) |
|---|---|
| Invited participant (Keynote speaker, Session Chair, Discussant, Presenter) | Free |
| Full-time academic - University of Melbourne | Free |
| Full-time academic - other institution | $380.00 |
| PhD student - University of Melbourne | Free |
| PhD student - other institution | $190.00 |
| Non-academic attendee | $430.00 |
Keynote Speakers
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.
For more information and to register, please visit the event webpage here.
Website
https://fbe.unimelb.edu.au/conferences/fduVenue
Sky Room
Level 14, 30 Collins Street, , Melbourne VIC 3000
