BY DAVID MYTON | POSTED ON APRIL 3, 2019

A presentation underway at the recent SIRCA Young Researchers Workshop

Eleven young researchers from universities across Australia and New Zealand took the spotlight recently to demonstrate how they were finding new ways of using data in the areas of finance and accounting.

The occasion was the eighth annual SIRCA Young Researchers Workshop for PhD candidates and recently-completed graduates, held at the University of Technology, Sydney.

A young researcher must currently be working on a PhD or have finished it within the past five years.

Universities represented the two-day function included the University of New South Wales, University of Technology, Sydney, Monash University, Australian National University, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, University of Western Australia, University of Queensland, and New Zealand’s Massey University.

These universities are subscribers to SIRCA data collections, which the young researchers accessed for their projects.

The event saw the young researchers explaining their papers for 15 minutes, engaging for 10 minutes with their appointed Discussant – senior academics from University of Technology, Sydney, Wollongong University, University of New South Wales, La Trobe, and the University of Sydney – followed by five minutes for questions from other academics and researchers.

The presenters, their topics and academic Discussants were:

• Duc Man Nguyen – University of Technology, Sydney ETFs and anomalies? (Discussant Doug Foster, University of Sydney)
• Bao Doan – University of New South Wales – Distinct roles of risk and uncertainty: Evidence from trading around U.S. macro news (Discussant Dave Michayluck – University of Technology, Sydney)
• Mark Wallis – University of Queensland  The Pricing of Disclosure Quality in the Bond Market (Discussant Stephen Taylor – University of Technology, Sydney
• Baoqing Gan – University of Technology, Sydney – Sensitivity to Sentiments: Social vs News Media Impacts on Stock Markets – A comparison using textual analysis (Discussant Terry Walter – University of Wollongong)
• Man Duy Pham – University of Western Australia  Management Connectedness and Corporate Investment (Discussant Mark Humphery-Jenner University of New South Wales)
• Arseny Gorbenko – University of New South Wales Rationally Neglected Stocks (Discussant Jerry Parwada – University of New South Wales)
• Harvey Nguyen – Massey University – Earnings Announcement Lottery Payoffs and the Cross-section of Stock Returns (Discussant Petko Kalev – LaTrobe University
• Xiaolu Hu – Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Shopping the rating: Evidence from Chinese corporate bond market (Discussant Kathy Walsh – University of Technology, Sydney)
• Michael Wang – Monash University Blockholder Activism and Stock Price Information Quality (Discussant Danika Wright – University of Sydney)
• Wanyun Li – Australia National University Effects of Social Media Discussions on Management Earnings Guidance (Discussant Andrew Jackson – University of New South Wales)
• Anum Malik – Massey University Conceptualising Style Drift (Discussant Lorenzo Casavecchia – University of Technology, Sydney)

Many of the Discussant roles and reviewers for the academic papers were facilitated by the Financial Research Network (FIRN).

Adam Catarius, SIRCA Product Manager, said all the papers were of a high standard while several were “absolute stand-outs”.

“These papers had great, fresh ideas, and close to publication standard,” he said.

“The Young Researchers are pretty passionate and they all think that their area of research is extremely beneficial.

“Any criticism they received was always honest and constructive, with the academics trying to just help push them in the correct direction so they can achieve their goal of publication. It’s a great opportunity to get expert feedback.”

* The inaugural Mardi Dungey Memorial Award for the best overall presenter, paper and young researcher who contributed the most during the Young Researchers Workshop was presented to Michael (Jun) Wang from Monash University. The Award is named in honour of Professor Mardi Dungey, Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Tasmania, who passed away in January this year.