Finance, Organizations and Markets (FOM) Conference
hosted by Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California
Room 110 Popovich Hall (JKP), USC, Los Angeles, CA 90089
October 24 - 25, 2025
Click here for program in PDF format
*** Notes for participants ***
Each paper has 45 minutes total: allocated as 25 for presenter, 12 for discussant, and 8 for audience
*We thank iORB (Institute for Outlier Research in Business) and the FBE department at USC Marshall for generously funding conference expenses.
Friday, October 24, 2025
*Click on each paper for PDF file (will be available later)
8:15 am – 8:45 am Continental Breakfast and Conference Check-In (Popovich Room 110)
8:50 am – 9:00 am Opening Remarks (Popovich Room TBD, all sessions will be here too)
SESSION I Session Chair: Elvira Sojli (University of New South Wales)
9:00 am – 9:45 am
Authors: Heitor Almeida, Daniel Carvalho, and Yongseok Kim
Speaker: Heitor Almeida, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Discussant: Katie Moon, University of Colorado Boulder
9:45 am – 10:30 am
Authors: Cynthia Balloch, Federico Mainardi, Sangmin Oh, and Petra Vokatas
Speaker: Federico Mainardi, Columbia University
Discussant: Vrinda Mittal, University of North Carolina
10:30 am – 11:00 am COFFEE BREAK
SESSION II Session Chair: Kristine Hankins (University of Kentucky)
11:00 am – 11:45 am
Paper 3: Taxes and Private Firms’ Capital Structure Choices [click to download]
Authors: Mara Faccio and Jin Xu
Speaker: Jin Xu, Virginia Tech
Discussant: Joan Farre-Mensa, University of Illinois Chicago
11:45 am – 12:30 pm
Paper 4: Capital Budgeting for EPS Maximizers [click to download]
Authors: Itzhak Ben-David and Alex Chinco
Speaker: Alex Chinco, Michigan State University
Discussant: Vyacheslav Fos, Boston College
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm Lunch @ Suryan Plaza
SESSION III Session Chair: John Matsusaka (University of Southern California)
1:30 pm – 2:15 pm
Paper 5: Partisan Friendshoring [click to download]
Authors: Meghana Ayyagari, Janet Gao, and Pengfei Ma
Speaker: Janet Gao, Georgetown University
Discussant: Ran Duchin, Boston College
2:15 pm – 3:00 pm
Paper 6: Escaping Pay-for-Performance [click to download]
Authors: Jason Chen, Jakub Hajda, and Joseph Kalmenovitz
Speaker: Joseph Kalmenovitz, University of Rochester
Discussant: Kevin Murphy, University of Southern California
3:00 pm – 3:30 pm COFFEE BREAK
SESSION IV Session Chair: Harry DeAngelo (University of Southern California)
3:30 pm – 4:15 pm
Authors: Kyle Herkenhoff, Josh Lerner, Gordon Phillips, Francisca Rebelo, and Ben Sampson
Speaker: Gordon Phillips, Dartmouth College
Discussant: Melanie Wallskog , Duke University
4:15 pm – 5:00 pm
Keynote Presentation: Professor René Stulz, The Ohio State University
Speaker: René Stulz, Everett D. Reese Chair of Banking and Monetary Economics, The Ohio State University
5:45 pm - 6:30 pm Pre-Dinner Reception @ University Club, University of Southern California, Scriptorium Room
6:30 pm Dinner @ University Club, University of Southern California, Scriptorium Room
Saturday, October 25, 2025
7:45 am – 8:15 am CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST
SESSION V Session Chair: Gunjan Seth (University of Southern California)
8:15 am – 9:00 am
Paper 8: Driving a Bargain: Negotiation Skill and Price Dispersion [click to download]
Authors: Kristine W. Hankins, Tong Liu, and Denis Sosyura
Speaker: Denis Sosyura, Arizona State University
Discussant: Michael Wittry, The Ohio State University
9:00 am – 9:45 am
Paper 9: The Cost of Intermediary Market Power for Distressed Borrowers [click to download]
Author: Winston Wei Dou, Wei Wang, and Wenyu Wang
Speaker: Wenyu Wang, Indiana University
Discussant: Franz Hinzen , Dartmouth College
9:45 am – 10:00 am COFFEE BREAK
SESSION VI Session Chair: Jason Donaldson (University of Southern California)
10:00 am – 10:45 am
Paper 10: New Products [click to download]
Author: Abhiroop Mukherjee, Bruno Pellegrino, Alminas Zaldokas, Yiman Ren, and Tomas Thornquist
Speaker: Bruno Pellegrino, Columbia University
Discussant: Alexandre Corhay, University of Toronto
10:45 am – 11:30 am
Author: Naveen Khanna and Richmond Mathews
Speaker: Richmond Mathews, University of Maryland
Discussant: Ed Van Wesep, University of Colorado Boulder
11:30 am Closing Remarks
11:35 am Box Lunch and End of Conference