Was it a Bubble?

A two-for-one deal! Send your paper to a conference and it is automatically considered for publication in the RFS!

Call For Papers: THE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF RECENT FINANCIAL MARKET BUBBLES
August 12-13, 2005

ISDEX, an authoritative and widely cited internet stock index, rose from 100 in January 1996 to 1100 in February 2000 – an incredible increase of about 1000% in four years – only to fall down to 600 in May 2000 – an incredible decrease of about 45% in four months. Amongst big rises and falls in the history of stock market prices, this episode ranks amongst the most spectacular. The RFS-IU conference focuses on these recent financial market bubbles. It aims to address the following three questions: a) Was it a bubble? (How do you define bubbles ex-ante? Can you even define bubbles ex-post?) b) What caused it? (Investors? Managers? Financial advisors? Government policies? Media? Academics?) c) Did it matter? (Any real effects?)

The answers to these three research questions touch upon all sub-disciplines of finance – asset pricing, corporate finance, market microstructure, behavioral finance, international finance, law and finance, and real estate finance.

PROGRAM COMMITTEE: Brad Barber, Utpal Bhattacharya, Joshua Coval, John Graham, Craig Holden, Robert Jennings, Steve Kaplan, Alan Kraus, Maureen O’Hara (chair), Thomas Noe, Jay Ritter, David Scharfstein, Matthew Spiegel, Xiaoyun Yu and Jiang Wang.

SUBMISSION: There is no charge for submission. The RFS will consider all the papers accepted for the conference as submissions to the RFS, and will waive the RFS submission fees for these papers. If a sufficient number of conference papers are accepted by the RFS after their usual rigorous refereeing process, the papers will be published in a RFS special issue. Authors who do not wish to have their papers submitted to the RFS if their papers are accepted for the conference should indicate so at the time of conference submission. Authors are invited to submit theoretical or empirical papers. Papers should be written in English and not have already been accepted for publication. Papers will be blindly reviewed by the program committee. The conference organizers will reimburse reasonable travel expenses and will provide meals and lodging for paper presenters, discussants and session chairs.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Please send three hard copies of your paper, with a separate title page and abstract, by April 30, 2005 to:

Utpal Bhattacharya or Xiaoyun Yu
The RFS-IU Conference
Kelley School of Business, Indiana University
1309 East Tenth Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405

Sponsored by The Review of Financial Studies and The Finance Department of the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.