The University of Texas McCombs School of Business is hosting a Forensic Finance Conference on April 30 – May 1, 2026 at the Robert Rowling Hall at the University of Texas at Austin. You are invited to submit papers on any topic related to forensic finance.

Our goal for the conference is to bring more attention to the field of forensic finance, which focuses on financial activity that is potentially illegal, illicit, and immoral. Research on forensic finance includes asset pricing, corporate finance, financial intermediation, and household finance, and can also relate to research in other economic fields, accounting, and the law. We welcome submissions across this full spectrum of research areas.

Submit your paper

The deadline for submissions is December 12, 2025 at midnight (CST). The program will be announced in February.

The 2026 Forensic Finance Conference keynote speaker will be Anat Admati of Stanford University. 

Further program details are currently being finalized and will be announced in February, 2026.

Accomodations are currently being finalized. More information will be available in Feburary, 2026.

Program Committee:

Lauren Cohen
Jess Cornaggia
Kim Cornaggia
Mark Egan
Janet Gao
Umit Gurun
Will Gerken
Nick Hirschey
Colleen Honigsberg
Jonathan Karpoff
Gonzalo Maturana
Jordan Nickerson
Maureen O’Hara
Jay Ritter
Margarita Tsoutsoura
Stefan Zeume
Eric Zitzewitz

Program Organizers:

John Griffin
Sam Kruger

Conference Organizers:

Kyle Hernandez

Thursday, May 1

Afternoon

Session Chair: Jay Ritter
AT&T Center, Classroom 201

2:00-2:15 pm
Welcome and Introduction

2:15-3:00 pm
“Self-Dealing in Corporate Investment”
Authors: Paul Decaire (Arizona State) and Denis Sosyura (Arizona State)
Discussant: Erik Lie (Iowa)

3:00-3:15 pm
Break

3:15-4:45 pm
“Regulatory Leakage Among Financial Advisors: Evidence from FINRA Regulation of ‘Bad’ Broker”
Authors: Colleen Honigsberg (Stanford), Edwin Hu (Virginia), and Rob Jackson (NYU)
Discussant: Shan Ge (NYU)

“Death of a Salesman’s Manager: Conflicted Supervision and the Dark Side of Soft Information”
Authors: Stephen Dimmock (NUS), Jesse Ellis (NC State), and William Gerken (Kentucky)
Discussant: Tarik Umar (Rice)

4:45-5:00 pm
Break

5:00-5:30 pm
Keynote Address
Maureen O’Hara (Cornell)

6:30 pm
Dinner – Jacoby’s Restaurant & Mercantile
3235 E Cesar Chavez St., Austin TX 78702

Friday, May 2

Morning

Session Chair: Jonathan Karpoff
AT&T Center, Classroom 201

8:00-8:30 am
Breakfast – Tejas Dining Room
AT&T Hotel & Conference Center

8:30-10:00 am
“Tunneling and Hidden Profits in Health Care”
Authors: Ashvin Gandhi (UCLA) and Andrew Olenski (UCLA)
Discussant: Jess Cornaggia (Penn State)

“Contagious Deregulation”
Authors: Joseph Kalmenovitz (Rochester), Jakub Hajda (HEC Montreal), and Billy Xu (Rochester)
Discussant: Jonathan Karpoff (Washington)

10:00-10:15 am
Break

10:15 am – 12:00 pm
“Kamikazes in Public Procurements: Bid-Rigging and Real Non-Market Outcomes”
Authors: Dimas Fazio (NUS) and Alminas Zaldokas (NUS)
Discussant: Umit Gurun (University of Texas at Dallas)

“Box Jumping: Portfolio Recompositions to Achieve Higher Morningstar Ratings”
Authors: Lauren Cohen (Harvard), David S. Kim (MIT), and Eric C. So (MIT)
Discussant: Mindy Xiaolan (University of Texas at Austin)

12:00-1:00 pm
Lunch – Tejas Dining Room
AT&T Hotel & Conference Center

Afternoon

Session Chair: Michael Sockin
AT&T Center, Classroom 201

1:00-2:30 pm
“Splitting the Spoils: The Economics of Ransomware as a Service”
Authors: Anirudh Dhawan (IIM-Bangalore), Sean Foley (Macquarie), and Vito Mollica (Macquarie)
Discussant: Baolian Wang (Florida)

“Centralized Governance in Decentralized Organizations”
Authors: Lin William Cong (Cornell), Daniel Rabetti (NUS), Charles C.Y. Wang (Harvard), and Yu Yan (NUS)
Discussant: Cesare Fracassi (University of Texas at Austin)