28th INFER ANNUAL CONFERENCE; XXIII INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON FINANCE AND BANKING, FI BA 2026

28th INFER ANNUAL CONFERENCE  & FI BA 2026 XXIII INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE   ON FINANCE AND BANKING, FI BA 2026

JUNE 3-5, 2026, BUCHAREST, ROMANIA

Conference program:here!

Call for papers: here!

Conference website: here!

Organized by FACULTY OF FINANCE AND BANKING Bucharest University of Economic Studies & The International Network for Economic Research – INFER
with the support of the Romanian Association of Finance and Banking (RoFIBA) and Center for Financial and Monetary Research (CEFIMO)

The Faculty of Finance and Banking of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, ASE and the International Network for Economic Research (INFER) jointly organise the 28th INFER Annual Conference and the XXIII International Conference on Finance and Banking FI BA 2026, scheduled to take place on June 3-5, 2026, Bucharest, Romania.

The Conference gathers economists to present and discuss their work on the cutting edge of theoretical and empirical research, to promote the exchange of ideas and the dissemination of results. Researchers are invited to submit full papers related to the following, non-exhaustive, list of topics:
 Agricultural economics
 Banking
 Behavioural economics and finance
 Circular economy
 Commodities and financial markets
 Corporate finance
 Derivatives and risk management
 Development economics
 Econometrics
 Economic asymmetries
 Economic history and history of economic thought
 Economic inequality
 Economic and financial integration
 Empirical economics
 Energy and environmental economics
 Experimental economics
 Financial markets and asset prices
 Fiscal policy and public finance
 Gender economics
 Geopolitics and global value chains
 Growth and business cycle
 Health economics
 Housing and real estate economics
 Industrial economics
 Insurance
 International finance
 International trade and FDI
 Investments
 Labour economics
 Macroeconomics
 Migration
 Monetary economics
 Operational research in finance
 Quantitative finance and financial mathematics
 Spatial economics
 Sustainable development and finance

Important dates
Paper Submission: March 15, 2026
Notification of paper acceptance/rejection: March 31, 2026
Payment and registration: May 2, 2026

Keynote lectures
Laura ALFARO, Harvard Business School
Laura Alfaro is the Chief Economist for the Inter-American Development Bank and Economic Counselor to the President. She is taking a leave from Harvard Business School, where she is the Warren Alpert Professor of Business Administration. She served as Minister of National Planning and Economic Policy in Costa Rica from 2010 to 2012. She is Co-Editor of the Journal of International Economics and World Bank Research Observer, Vice-President of LACEA, and Faculty Research Associate in CEPR and NBER. Professor Alfaro has authored numerous articles on international economics, capital flows, foreign direct investment (FDI), sovereign debt, and trade. Laura Alfaro earned her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), where she received the Dissertation Fellowship award. She received a B.A. degree in economics from the Universidad de Costa Rica and a ‘Licenciatura’ from the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Chile.

Giancarlo CORSETTI, European University Institute
Giancarlo Corsetti, (Ph.D. Yale) is a joint Professor at the Department of Economics and Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute. Previously he was Professor of Macroeconomics at the Universities of Cambridge. He has been a long-serving consultant to the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Bank of Italy, the United Nations and other institutions. As fellow of CERP, he is currently leading the Research and Policy Network “European Economic Policy”. He is a fellow of the British Academy. His academic work includes pioneering research on open macro macroeconomics, fiscal and monetary policy, and currency and financial crises—published by leading international journals. He co-authored books and policy reports on European integration, stabilization policy and global monetary cooperation.

Paolo SODINI, Stockholm School of Economics
Paolo Sodini is the 25th Anniversary Professor at the Department of Finance at the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE). Prof. Sodini obtained his PhD in Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is a research fellow of the Swedish House of Finance (SHOF), a research fellow at the CEPR, and one of the founding members of the CEPR Network in Household Finance. He is the director of MiDa – the Institute for Micro Data at SSE and SHoF. Prof. Sodini is a leading scholar in household finance, the field of Financial Economics that studies how households use financial markets to achieve their goals. He has studied the welfare consequences of household financial mistakes, such as portfolio diversification and rebalancing, and the importance of sophistication in limiting financial losses. He has also worked on the determinants of welfare inequality, in particular of the role of savings, preferences and returns to wealth. His latest research focuses on real estate markets and explores the impact of homeownership on household economic behavior and gender differences in the housing market. He published in top economics and finance journals such as: Journal of Political Economy, the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and has contributed to the latest edition of the Handbook of the Economics of Finance with a review chapter on Household Finance.

Organization
INFER is a global, dynamic non-profit organization supporting science and research in all areas of economics. INFER encourages scientific discussions during its annual conferences and its workshops organized on specific topics. It also offers excellent publication possibilities to its members. Researchers and practitioners from all fields of economics are welcomed as INFER members. Universities or research centres can join INFER as institutional members. INFER also aims to become a dissemination partner for large research projects (http://www.infer-research.eu/).

FABBV is one of the top faculties of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies. Its mission is to ensure quality training for future professionals and to contribute to the development of top scientific research in the field of finance (https://fabbv.ase.ro/en/home/).

CEFIMO is the first research center of Faculty of Finance and Banking, which came into existence in 2000. The Center aims in developing a consistent basic and experimental research within the following areas: public finance, corporate finance, monetary and banking system, insurance, international finance (https://cefimo.ase.ro/).

RoFIBA is a newly established association gathering academics, researchers and practitioners in the field of finance and banking. It aims at promoting professional, scientific and ethical values to stand for and to cherish the interests of its members. The association acts in the sense of preserving, building and developing the traditions of the national and international economic science, of strengthening the connection between the researchers, academics worldwide and of increasing the visibility of their work (https://www.rofiba.ro/index.php?lang=en&page=home).

Organising Committee
Josep-Maria ARAUZO-CAROD (INFER, Universitat Rovira I Virgili)
Maria BAKATSAKI (Technical University of Crete)
Eleonora CAVALLARO (INFER, Sapienza Università di Roma)
Radu CIOBANU (FABBV, Bucharest University of Economic Studies)
Agnieszka GEHRINGER (INFER, Cologne University of Applied Sciences)
Georgiana-Camelia GEORGESCU (FABBV, Bucharest University of Economic Studies)
Mihaela IACOB (FABBV, Bucharest University of Economic Studies)
Galina KOLEV-SCHAEFER (INFER, Cologne University of Applied Sciences)
Inmaculada MARTÍNEZ-ZARZOSO (INFER, University Jaume I & University of Göttingen)
Dimitrios PAPARAS (INFER, Harper Adams University)
Andreea-Maria STOIAN (FABBV, Bucharest University of Economic Studies)
Cecilio TAMARIT ESCALONA (INFER, University of Valencia)

Scientific Committee
António AFONSO (University of Lisbon)
Daniela ANDREN (Örebro University School of Business)
Claudiu ALBULESCU (INFER, Politehnica University of Timisoara)
Dan ANGHEL (FABBV, Bucharest University of Economic Studies)
Josep-Maria ARAUZO-CAROD (INFER, University Rovira i Virgili)
Florina-Cristina BADARAU (University of Bordeaux)
Denisa Georgiana BĂNULESCU RADU (University of Orléans)
Mariam CAMARERO (University Jaume I)
Eleonora CAVALLARO (INFER, Sapienza University of Rome)
Peter CLAEYS (Universidad Pontificia Comillas)
Andreea CURMEI-SEMENESCU (FABBV, Bucharest University of Economic Studies)
Victor DRAGOTĂ (FABBV, Bucharest University of Economic Studies)
Ingrid Mihaela DRAGOTĂ (FABBV, Bucharest University of Economic Studies)
Erich Walter FARKAS (University of Zürich)
Agnieszka GEHRINGER (INFER, Cologne University of Applied Sciences)
Ștefan Cristian GHERGHINA (FABBV, Bucharest University of Economic Studies)
Iuliana ISMALIESCU (PACE University)
Galina KOLEV-SCHAEFER (INFER, Cologne University of Applied Sciences)
Ioannis, KOSTAKIS (INFER, Harokopio University of Athens)
Matei KUBINSCHI (National Bank of Romania)
Inmaculada MARTÍNEZ-ZARZOSO (INFER, University Jaume I, University of Göttingen)
Alexandru MINEA (University of Auvergne)
Florian NEAGU (FABBV, Bucharest University of Economic Studies)
Christian OBERST (German Economic Institute)
Cornel OROȘ (University of Poitiers)
Dimitrios PAPARAS (INFER, Harper Adams University)
Ana Maria Cuadros Ramos (Institute of International Economics, University Jaume I)
Jamel SAADAOUI (University Paris 8)
Francisco SERRANITO (INFER, University of Nanterre)
Andreea STOIAN (INFER, FABBV, Bucharest University of Economic Studies)
Cecilio TAMARIT ESCALONA (INFER, University of Valencia)
Camelia TURCU (University of Orléans)
Jan Van Hove (KU Leuven)

Submission of Papers
Only full papers may be submitted for the Annual Conference. Papers must be in English and include an abstract of up to 500 words, 5 keywords, JEL classification and contact details for the corresponding author. Papers should be submitted electronically as pdf-files to the Annual Conference organizers via Easy Chair.

To submit your full paper, please follow these steps:
1. Create an account on: https://easychair.org
2.If you have already an Easy Chair account, you can log into https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=28thinferac23rdfiba2026 by using your account
3. You will receive an automatic email to confirm your submission. You can update your submission until the deadline.
All submitted papers will be peer-reviewed according to a high-quality and fast referee process.
Questions related to the submissions process please contact inferacinfo@gmail.com

Special Sessions

The Conference will host several Special Sessions focusing on various topics.
• Artificial Intelligence and the Need for New Inclusive and Sustainable Growth Paths (Monica POP SILAGHI, Babeș-Bolyai University)
• Beyond the AI Bubble: The Promise and Peril of How Intelligent Tools Reshape Markets, Policy, and the Environment (Dan Gabriel ANGHEL, FABBV, Bucharest University of Economic Studies)
• Economic Studies on Policies for Housing Affordability (Michael STIERLE, Task Force Housing, European Commission & Christian OBERST, German Economic Institute)
• Emerging Market MacroEconomics – EMME (Delphine LAHET, BxSE, University of Bordeaux & Marc POURROY, LéP, University of Poitiers)
• Financial Literacy (Andreea STOIAN, FABBV, Bucharest University of Economic Studies)
• Financial Management (Victor DRAGOTĂ, FABBV, Bucharest University of Economic Studies)
• Geopolitical Risk and Economic Fragmentation: Implications for Financial Stability (Florian NEAGU, FABBV, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, National Bank of Romania & Matei KUBINSCHI, National Bank of Romania)
• Macroeconomics of Climate Change (Cristina BADARAU, NFER, University of Bordeaux & Corentin ROUSSEL, University of Strasbourg)
• Rethinking the Future: Insurance in Turbulent Times (FABBV, Ingrid Mihaela DRAGOTĂ, Bucharest University of Economic Studies)

Specific sessions will be designed for PhD students. The INFER Annual Conference encourages the engagement of PhD students with the activities of the network, offering the possibility to present incomplete papers with their research proposals or preliminary drafts of one of their PhD essays. The idea is to encourage discussion and receive valuable feedback from a panel of professors and experts. Authors should select the option “PhD student” during submission.

A dedicated Workshop on Academic Writing for high-impact journals will be organized by Peter CLAEYS (Universidad Pontificia Comillas). The workshop aims to support researchers—especially early-career scholars and PhD candidates—in enhancing their academic writing skills, with practical guidance on structuring papers, and improving clarity and impact in scholarly communication.

The Meet-the-Editor session is also offering participants the opportunity to engage directly with journal editors in the field. This interactive session will provide valuable insights into the publication process, journal
expectations, and effective strategies for successfully navigating peer review. Participants will have the chance to ask questions, discuss manuscript development, and gain practical advice from experienced editors. The session will be hosted by:
Josep-Maria ARAUZO CAROD (Eurasian Business Review)
Agnieszka GEHRINGER (International Economic and Economic Policy, Eastern European Economics)
Inmaculada MARTÍNEZ-ZARZOSO (Journal of International Trade & Economic Development)

We warmly encourage all participants to take part in these enriching and collaborative sessions.

Publication opportunities

We organize several special issues (SI) in the following journals:
-Eastern European Economics (EEE), Challenges of Integration and Economic Resilience in Central and Eastern Europe. Guest editors: Josep-Maria Arauzo-Carrod (INFER, University Rovira i Virgili), Eleonora Cavallaro (INFER, Sapienza University of Rome), Andreea Stoian (INFER, FABBV, Bucharest University of Economic Studies). Deadline for paper submission October 31, 2026

-Review of Finance and  Banking (RFB), Research Frontiers in Finance: Insights from the Next Generation of Economists. Guest editors: Erich Walter Farkas (University of Zürich), Iuliana Ismailescu (PACE University), Andreea Stoian (INFER, FABBV, Bucharest University of Economic Studies). Deadline for paper submission July 10, 2026

-Journal of International Trade & Economic Development (JITED), Trade, Finance and Development in a Changing Global Economy. Guest editors: Inmaculada Martinez-Zarzoso (INFER, University Jaume I), Josep-Maria Arauzo-Carrod (INFER, University Rovira i Virgili), Eleonora Cavallaro (INFER, Sapienza University of Rome). Deadline for paper submission December 31 2026

Prizes and awards
FABBV offers a Best Ph.D. Paper Award for the most outstanding research paper in Finance. The award is
accompanied by a 500 Euros prize. The candidates cannot hold a Ph.D. at the time of submission of paper.
Papers for the Best Ph.D. Paper Award can only be authored by Ph.D. students
Best Ph.D. Paper Award in Finance
INFER offers the following awards, each accompanied by a 1,000 Euros prize:
INFER Young Economist Award
INFER Research Award
INFER Policy Research Award
INFER PhD Paper Award
On INFER’s website you can access information regarding former awards and prizes (https://inferresearch.
eu/awards/ ).
All candidates must be registered for the 2026 INFER-FIBA Conference at the time of submission of the paper.
The awarding ceremony will take place during the event.

Conference fee
Standard: 330 Euros
INFER Institutional Members: 290 Euros
PhD students: 174 Euros (INFER will subsidize 40% of the fee originally announced)

The registration fee includes Conference registration and materials, access to all Conference sessions, snacks & coffee breaks, lunch, welcome cocktail (June 3, 2026), Gala Dinner (June 4, 2026), the social event (June 5, 2026).
The standard fee also includes INFER individual membership. It does not include travel and accommodation expenses. Registration fees are non-refundable. Registrations cancelled due to VISA issues are eligible for a 50% refund only if they are notified at least 30 days before the Conference. Registrations cancelled after that date are no longer eligible for a refund. All participants have to register for the Conference. Please note that the paper submission is not considered as registration.

Registration
Registration is done in 2 steps (once finalised, you will receive a confirmation e-mail):
Step 1. Through the INFER website + PayPal or Credit Card. You need first to register on the INFER website (inferresearch. eu). Then, payment can be done via PayPal or credit card on the website.
Please click the payment using PayPal. Then, you can either log into your PayPal account or choose to pay directly with a credit card on the event page.

Step 2. After payment, fill in the Google form:here!

You will be asked to upload the receipt of payment. A submission link is provided if you later want to update your replies or upload your presentation. For organizational reasons we also ask you if you are going to attend the Gala Dinner and your dietary requirements or allergies

The conference’s official language is English.
Speakers will not be able to present remotely.
The event will only take place in person.
Each presenter is allowed to deliver a maximum of two presentations.
We cannot provide a VISA invitation letter unless a registration fee is paid.
We feel sorry to inform you that we do not provide any funding opportunities.

Conference venue
The conference will be held at the Faculty of Finance and Banking of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies.
June 3, 2026: 6 Romana Square

June 4-5, 2026: 5-7 Mihail Moxa Street

Gala Dinner
There will be a gala dinner on June 4, 2026. The location will be communicated in due time. The cost of the gala dinner is included in the submission fee.

Social Event
There will be a social event on June 5, 2026 in the afternoon. The location will be communicated in due time. The cost of the social event is included in the submission fee.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Accompanying persons may attend the gala dinner and the social event uponpayment of the corresponding costs.

Accommodation
Participants are responsible for their travel and accommodation arrangements. Please make your reservations as soon as possible.
To facilitate your search, the organizers have negotiated special discounts for the conference participants at MOXA Bucharest Boutique Hotel (https://hotelmoxa.com/ ).
Contact person:
Angelica Jonea
Sales Account Manager
sales@hotelmoxa.com

IMPORTANT NOTICE: In order to benefit from the special prices, please mention in the reservation process your participation at the INFER-FIBA Conference.
In addition, we can arrange for accommodation upon request at one of the university guesthouses. In this case, please, contact in advance the local organizers at: fiba@fin.ase.ro.

Travel information
How to get to Bucharest
– By plane: Henri Coanda International Airport (Otopeni) (https://www.bucharestairports.ro/)
 from the airport: order a taxi using the touch screen from inside the airport or take the train or use the bus
– By train: Northen Railway (Gara de Nord)
(https://www.cfrcalatori.ro/en/timetable/)
 from the Northen Railway: order an uber / bolt or take the subway

Further information
Updated information on 2026 INFER-FIBA Conference will be provided in due course on the Conference website. For any question, please contact us at inferacinfo@gmail.com