Politics in Finance — Georgetown University

Organization

Program Committee

Jennie Bai

Georgetown University

Francesco D'Acunto

Georgetown University

Ran Duchin

Boston College

Joseph Engelberg

UC San Diego

Vyacheslav (Slava) Fos

Boston College

Janet Gao

Georgetown University

Jarrad Harford

University of Washington

Elisabeth Kempf

Harvard Business School

William Mullins

UC San Diego

Margarita Tsoutsoura

Washington University in St. Louis

Submissions

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Attendance

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Current Conference

2026 Program

Friday, September 4 · Rafik Hariri Building, Room 350

Session 1: Political Influence and Law Moderator: Elizabeth Kempf (Harvard Business School)

9:00–9:40

The Liberal Tilt of Financial Regulators

Jason Chen (Auburn University), Joseph Kalmenovitz (University of Rochester), Denis Sosyura (Arizona State University)

Discussant: John Matsusaka (University of Southern California)

9:40–10:20

Mega-Donors and Representation of the Wealthy in the Wake of Citizens United

Ilona Babenko (Arizona State University), Viktar Fedaseyeu (CEIBS), Guosong Xu (Erasmus University)

Discussant: Pat Akey (ESSEC Business School)

Coffee Break — 10:20–10:35

Session 2: Granular Origins of Political Cycle Moderator: Jarrad Harford (University of Washington)

10:35–11:20

Invited Speech

The Micro-Geography of Persuasion: Randomized Peer Exposure and Legislative Outcomes

Lauren Cohen (Harvard Business School)

11:20–12:00

Firms as Electoral Monopsonies

Carlos F. Avenancio-León (UCSD), Adelina Barbalau (University of Alberta), Cyndi Xinyu Hou (Indiana University), Alessio Piccolo (Indiana University)

Discussant: Paolo Volpin (Drexel University)

Lunch — 12:00–1:20 pm

Session 3: Pricing of Political Uncertainty Moderator: Slava Fos (Boston College)

1:20–2:00

The Pricing of Geopolitical Tensions over a Century

Andrei S. Goncalves (Ohio State University), Alessandro Melone (Ohio State University), Andrea Ricciardi (Ohio State University)

Discussant: Jinyuan Zhang (UCLA)

2:00–2:40

Learning from Prediction Markets: The Transmission of Information and Noise to Traditional Assets

Itay Goldstein (Wharton School), Ye Li (University of Washington), Chen Wang (University of Notre Dame)

Discussant: Pete Kyle (University of Maryland)

Coffee Break — 2:40–3:00

3:00–3:45

Invited Speech

What is Political Spending Buying? Three Modes of Corporate Demand for Government

Paola Sapienza (Stanford University)

Coffee Break — 3:45–4:00

Session 4: Seminar Style Presentations

4:00–4:20

Populism and Monetary Policy Transmission

Nora Lamersdorf (BI Norwegian Business School)

4:20–4:40

Partisan Product Pricing

Ran Duchin (Boston College), Quentin Dupont (Georgetown University), Paul Freed (University of Virginia), John Hackney (University of Arkansas)

4:40–5:00

Unreadable Political Trades

Ziming Dong (UC Irvine), Nancy R. Xu (University of Cambridge), Xiaoyun Yu (SAIF)

5:00–5:20

Watchdog or Showdog? Spotlight Chasing in Antitrust Enforcement

Tianshu Lyu (Yale School of Management), Zunda Winston Xu (Stanford GSB)

Conference Dinner — Boqueria Penn Quarters, 6:00 pm

Saturday, September 5 · Rafik Hariri Building, Room 350

Session 5: Firms and Knowledge Production Moderator: William Mullins (UCSD)

9:00–9:40

The Politics of Academic Research

Matthew C. Ringgenberg (University of Utah), Chong Shu (University of Utah), Ingrid M. Werner (Ohio State University)

Discussant: Marlene Koffi (University of Toronto)

9:40–10:20

When Science and Technology Collide with Politics: Patent Examiner Political Ideology and Green Innovation

Tao Shu (CUHK), Fei Xie (University of Delaware), Song Zhang (University of Delaware), Wenrui Zhang (Colorado State University)

Discussant: Joan Farre-Mensa (University of Illinois Chicago)

Coffee Break — 10:20–10:40

Session 6: Political Ideology and Household Choices Moderator: Francesco D'Acunto (Georgetown University)

10:40–11:20

Politics and the Price of Housing

Marco Grotteria (LBS), S. Lakshmi Naaraayanan (LBS), Andrea Pagliuca (LBS)

Discussant: Arpit Gupta (New York University)

11:20–12:00

The Price of Representation: Congressional Redistricting and Housing Markets

Calvin Wright (University of Southern California)

Discussant: Ethan Kaplan (University of Maryland)

12:00–12:40

Consuming Values

Jacob Conway (University of Chicago), Levi Boxell (Independent)

Discussant: Jason Sandvik (University of Arizona)

Conference concludes — boxed lunch to go

Past Conferences

2025 Program

Friday, September 5 · Riggs Library, Georgetown University

Session 1: Political Economy in Banking Moderator: Jennie Bai (Georgetown University)

9:00–9:40

Politics, Regulation, and Bank Payouts

Rüdiger Fahlenbrach (Swiss Finance Institute), Minsu Ko (Monash University), René M. Stulz (Ohio State University)

Discussant: Peter Cziraki (University of Texas A&M)

9:40–10:20

Geopolitical Risk and Global Banking

Friederike Niepmann (Federal Reserve Board), Leslie Sheng Shen (Federal Reserve Boston)

Discussant: Ricardo Correa (Federal Reserve Board)

Coffee Break — 10:20–10:40

Session 2: ESG Preferences in Political Contexts Moderator: John Matsusaka (University of Southern California)

10:40–11:20

Invited Speech

Polarizing Corporations: Does Talent Flow to “Good” Firms?

Emanuele Colonnelli (University of Chicago)

11:20–12:00

Socially Responsible Investing in the Political Context

Marco Ceccarelli (VU Amsterdam), Stefano Ramelli (University of St. Gallen & Swiss Finance Institute), Anna Vasileva (University of Zurich), Alexander F. Wagner (University of Zurich)

Discussant: Matt Ringgenberg (University of Utah)

Lunch — 12:15–1:30 pm

Keynote Discussion Moderator: Reena Aggarwal (Director, Georgetown Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy)

Lunch

Keynote

Risk and Uncertainty in the Financial Markets: A Discussion with Lael Brainard

Lael Brainard — Former Director, White House National Economic Council; Former Vice Chair, Federal Reserve; Distinguished Fellow, Georgetown Psaros Center

Session 3: Political Influence and Connections Moderator: Jarrad Harford (University of Washington)

1:40–2:20

Invited Speech

TBD

Ray Fisman (Boston University)

2:20–3:00

Corporate Lobbying of Bureaucrats

Michelle Lowry (Drexel University), Ekaterina Volkova (University of Melbourne)

Discussant: Jiekun Huang (UIUC)

3:00–3:40

Democracy in the Dark: How Hidden Political Donations Shape U.S. Elections

Matthew Denes (Carnegie Mellon University), Madeline Marco Scanlon (University of South Carolina)

Discussant: Eitan Goldman (Indiana University)

Coffee Break — 3:40–4:00

Short Presentations

4:00–4:20

Partisan Fed

Andrea Pagliuca (London Business School)

4:20–4:40

Withdrawn Trust: Partisan Banking after SVB

J. Anthony Cookson (CU Boulder), Ryan Israelsen (Michigan State University), William Mullins (UC San Diego), Marcus Painter (Saint Louis University)

4:40–5:00

Politically Polarized Supply Chains

Nandini Gupta (Indiana University), Swarnodeep Homroy (University of Groningen & University of Southampton)

5:00–5:20

The Geoeconomic Role of Sovereign Wealth Funds: State Capital and International Trade Dynamics

Jinyuan Zhang (UCLA), Ran Zhou (UCLA)

Conference Dinner — Boqueria Penn Quarters, 6:00 pm

Saturday, September 6 · Rafik Hariri Building, Room 350

Session 4: Political Leaning of Large Institutions Moderator: Ran Duchin (Boston College)

9:00–9:40

Perceived Political Bias of the Federal Reserve

Pei Kuang (University of Birmingham), Michael Weber (University of Chicago), Shihan Xie (UIUC)

Discussant: Cristina Bodea (Michigan State University)

9:40–10:20

Voting on Public Goods: Citizens vs Shareholders

Robin Döttling (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Doron Levit (University of Washington), Nadya Malenko (Boston College), Magdalena Rola-Janicka (Imperial College London)

Discussant: Oguzhan Ozbas (Bilkent University)

10:20–11:00

Do Consumers Spend Their Money Where Their Votes Are? Ideology Distance and Local Sales

Lei Chen (University of Melbourne), Linxiang Ma (University of Strathclyde), Xiaoke Ye (University of Liverpool)

Discussant: J. Anthony Cookson (CU Boulder)

Coffee Break — 11:00–11:20

Session 5: Political Connection and Asset Markets Moderator: Joey Engelberg (UC San Diego)

11:20–12:00

Partisan Portfolios

Emil Siriwardane (Harvard Business School), Johnny Tang (Cornell University), Boris Vallee (Harvard Business School)

Discussant: Will Cassidy (Washington University in St. Louis)

12:00–12:40

Should The Public Be Concerned About Congressional Stock Trading?

Patrick Blonien (Carnegie Mellon University), Alan Crane (Rice University), Kevin Crotty (Rice University)

Discussant: Nancy Xu (Boston College)

Conference concludes — boxed lunch to go

Get in Touch

Contact

Conference Organizer: Janet Gao
Georgetown University
McDonough School of Business
Email: janet.gao@georgetown.edu
Venue: Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy
Rafik Hariri Building
Washington, D.C.
Hosted by: Georgetown University
McDonough School of Business

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