School of Management to Host National Conference On Finance And Accounting

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Leading experts and practitioners in the fields of financial economics and accounting will gather at a two-day conference, hosted by the University at Buffalo School of Management, to discuss new and on-going research on the behavior of capital markets, developments in corporate finance and international accounting issues.

The eighth annual Conference on Financial Economics and Accounting will be held Nov. 7-8 in the University Inn and Conference Center, 2401 N. Forest Road, Getzville.

It will feature presentations from professors representing some of the leading university business schools nationwide, including members of the conference consortium: UB, Duke University, New York University, University of Michigan, Rutgers University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Maryland and Washington University.

"The conference will address contemporary topics in finance and accounting with an emphasis on capital markets, and will include sessions on investment analysis, mutual-fund management and earnings expectations," said Michael Rozeff, conference co-director and UB finance professor. "The sessions will be enlightening for both practitioners and consumers interested in the behavior of the market."

Michael Jensen, professor of business administration at Harvard University, will deliver the conference's keynote address, "The Brain and Non-Rational Behavior," which will focus on human behavior, including the behavior of investors in the market.

Highlights of the conference will include a session on earnings expectations and share prices led by Charles Trzcinka, UB associate professor of finance. There will be a presentation on "The Impact of Earnings Pronouncements" by Sandip Bhagat, president of Travelers Investment Management, and a discussion of "The New Era in Earnings Expectations" by Edward Keon, senior vice president of I/B/E/S International.

Institutional Money Managers" by UB's Trzcinka, and a discussion of "Off Shore Hedge Funds: Survival and Performance" by finance professors Stephen Brown of NYU and William Goetzman and Roger Ibbotson of Yale University.

Louis Chan, finance professor at the University of Illinois, will lead a session on investment analysis. "The Calendar Structure of Risk and Expected Returns on Stock" will be discussed by Joseph Ogden, chair of UB's Department of Finance and Managerial Economics. "Firm Performance: Long-Run Stock Market Performance Following Spin-offs" will be the topic of finance professors Hemang Desai and Prem Jain of Tulane University.

Additional sessions will include presentations on portfolio management, corporate finance and restructuring, experimental studies in capital markets, analyst forecasts and options and futures.

For more information about the conference, or to register, contact the UB School of Management at 716-645-3290. The cost is $75 for UB students and employees, and $150 for the general public. The registration deadline, which will be taken on a first-come basis for the limited number of openings, is Oct. 31.