AFS 2027

The AfriMed Finance Society (AFS) annually recognizes outstanding scholarly contributions by conferring Best Paper Awards at its Annual Meeting.

AFS 2026

Halit Gonenc

Carbon Risk Premium in Multinational Corporations

Co-authors: Gizem Ari, Asad Rauf

Gonenc and his co-authors examine how carbon risk is priced differently for multinational corporations (MNCs) and domestic firms using U.S. public companies from 2002–2021. While confirming a positive carbon risk premium overall, they find that high-emission MNCs face lower carbon risk premia than comparable domestic firms, whereas MNCs with increasing emissions are penalized with significantly higher premia. They further show that voluntary Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) reporting mitigates this premium, particularly among firms with European subsidiaries operating under more stringent climate regulation. Their findings demonstrate that investors price carbon risk not only according to emissions levels but also based on emissions trajectories, disclosure quality, and regulatory exposure.

AFS 2026

Morten Bennedsen

Neighborhood CEOs

Co-authors: Mario Daniele Amore, Birthe Larsen

Bennedsen and his co-authors use comprehensive Danish register data together with large-scale employee surveys to examine how geographic proximity between CEOs and employees influences workplace quality and firm performance. They show that firms led by neighborhood CEOs exhibit significantly better working environments, supported by both regulatory inspections and employee perceptions. Exploiting CEO turnover and within-firm variation, they identify a causal effect that is strongest when CEOs' and employees' children attend the same schools, highlighting the role of local social interactions. They further find that neighborhood CEOs lead more profitable firms, demonstrating that stronger employee well-being can complement, rather than compromise, shareholder value.

AFS 2025 (AFS)

Izidin El Kalak

Propagation of ESG-Linked Compensation through Boardroom Connections

Co-authors: Oksana Pryshchepa, Cong Wang, Qingwei Wang

Izidin and his co-authors examine how ESG-linked compensation policies diffuse across firms through board interlocks and the role of common directors in shaping this process. Using data on U.S. listed firms from 2002 to 2020, they find that a firm is 2.7% more likely to adopt an ESG-pay policy when its board-connected peers have already implemented one. This peer effect is robust across alternative specifications and persists when using an instrumental variable approach based on peers of peers' ESG contracting. The effect is stronger when interlocking directors hold greater influence—such as serving as CEO in the focal firm, sitting on compensation committees, or being independent directors in peer firms. Moreover, diffusion is amplified in firms with higher board quality, stronger ESG orientation, greater information asymmetry, and more competitive market environments.

AFS 2025 (RIBAF)

Ben Charoenwong

Partisan Supply Chains: The Impact of Political Ideology on Global Sourcing

Co-authors: Jie Peng and Jing Wu

Charoenwong and colleagues examine how political ideology influences firms' global sourcing strategies. Exploiting a quasi-experimental setting around foreign elections, they find that greater ideological distance between U.S. firms and foreign governments leads to reduced imports from those countries. Firms with high R&D intensity are especially sensitive to these ideological shifts, whereas firms with long-established supply chains are less affected. The effect of political ideological distance is stronger in countries with robust institutions, where ideologically divergent regulations are more likely to be enacted and enforced. Ex post, firms that curtail sourcing from ideologically distant countries mitigate reputational risks associated with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) concerns.

AFS 2024 (AFS)

Cayman Seagraves

Now you see me: Broadband internet, social media, and corporate social responsibility

Co-authors: Todd Gormley, Hosein Maleki

Research by Seagraves and his colleagues explores the influence of mobile broadband internet and social media on companies' corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies. Utilizing the expansion of 3G networks in U.S. counties as a natural experiment, they found that the availability of 3G around a firm's headquarters is associated with a significant improvement in their CSR ratings. Reputation concerns, driven by the possibility of online activism and social media backlash of corporate policies, are a major driver of the results, they discovered.

AFS 2024 (RIBAF)

Sushil Sainani

Turning adversity into action: Strengthening board sustainability oversight in response to ESG incidents

Co-authors: Chris Florackis, Elica Krasteva

Research by Sushil and his colleagues examines how companies respond to negative publicity in the media regarding their environmental, social and governance (ESG) incidents by introducing governance measures tied to sustainability oversight and accountability. They find that firms are more likely to introduce sustainability committees, compensation linked to sustainability, and transparency in sustainability reporting, underscoring boards' active role in addressing ESG risks following incidents. Notably, their findings demonstrate that these responses are particularly pronounced for E-incidents (emissions and resource use) and S-incidents (workplace and community) incidents but are not observed in the case of G-incidents.

AFS 2023

R. Jared DeLisle

Does environmental and social performance affect pricing efficiency? Evidence from earnings conference call tones

Co-authors: Andrew Grant, Ruiqi Mao

Research by DeLisle and his colleagues examines how environmental and social (ES) performance, proxied by related incidents, affect the managerial and analyst tones in quarterly earnings conference calls and its incremental effect on post-earnings call returns. They documented that firms experiencing poor ES performance in the quarter prior to the earnings call exhibit more negative management tone after controlling for quarterly financial performance metrics. Tone difference in conference calls between managers and analysts predicts negative abnormal returns in the three-day window around the call.

The AfriMed Finance Association (AFS) invites high-quality research submissions for its seventh Annual Conference (AFS 2027), to be held in Athens, Greece, on July 16–18, 2027. We welcome theoretical and empirical contributions across all areas of finance and related business disciplines. In line with this year's theme, "New Frontiers in Finance: Artificial Intelligence, Risk, and Global Challenges," submissions exploring emerging challenges and opportunities—including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, financial innovation, geopolitical uncertainty, climate-related risks, and global financial stability—are particularly encouraged. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, and financial decision-making
• Corporate finance, firm valuation, capital structure, and investment decisions
• Asset pricing, financial markets, and investment management
• Geopolitical risk, economic uncertainty, and global financial stability
• Climate finance, ESG, sustainability, and energy transition
• Corporate governance, executive compensation, and shareholder activism
• Banking, financial intermediation, and systemic risk
• FinTech, digital assets, stablecoins, and central bank digital currencies
• Financial crises, market bubbles, and behavioral finance
• International finance, sovereign wealth funds, and emerging markets
• Financial regulation, taxation, political economy, and corporate disclosure
• Institutional investors, private equity, and alternative investments
• Derivatives, portfolio management, and financial risk management
• Real estate, infrastructure finance, and global property markets

Conference Submissions

Papers should be submitted through the conference submission portal: www.afrimedfinance.com. The submission deadline is March 31, 2027. Authors will be notified by April 21, 2027 regarding acceptance for presentation and discussion at the conference. For submission guidelines and additional information, please visit our website.

Conference Highlights

Beyond the keynote and research sessions, AFS 2027 will feature a special editors' panel titled “Behind the Editor's Desk: Publishing in the Age of AI—What Really Matters?” Editors from leading finance journals will share candid insights and real publication experiences, exploring evolving editorial expectations, the impact of AI on academic publishing, and what it takes to publish high-impact research.

Please note that the Organizing Committee does not have special arrangements or negotiated rates with specific hotels. However, for your convenience, the following accommodations are recommended options (this list is not exhaustive).