On April 17, 2024, at 10:00 am, the 28th Forum on Digital Technology and Economic Finance Frontiers was successfully held. The theme of this lecture was "Mandatory ESG disclosure, executive incentive and ESG performance", and the guest speaker was Associate Professor Xiaofei Pan from the Business School of the University of Wollongong. The lecture was chaired by Jin Shi, the Professor of the Finance School and chief expert of the Innovation and Talent Base for Digital Technology and Finance, and researchers and graduate students from the School of Finance attended the lecture.

At the beginning of the lecture, Professor Jin Shi briefly introduced Professor  Xiaofei Pan to the participants and expressed his sincere gratitude for his availability to give a lecture at our college despite his busy schedule.

During the lecture, Associate Professor Xiaofei Pan first elaborated on the research theme of this lecture in detail. Their aim is to explore how macroeconomic policies affect the behavioral structure of enterprises, and take mandatory information disclosure policies as an example to analyze the significant impact of such policies on the environment and society. Globally, such policies are receiving widespread attention. Subsequently, Associate Professor Pan Xiaofei pointed out that they would focus on addressing several key issues.

Firstly, Associate Professor Xiaofei Pan explored whether mandatory information disclosure policies are mainly driven by internal factors, what incentive measures are in the process of policy implementation, and who is leading or supervising the implementation. The research also focused on analyzing how corporate behavior is influenced during the policy implementation process. Secondly, the research found that establishing appropriate incentive mechanisms is crucial to ensuring the effectiveness of mandatory information disclosure. Associate Professor Xiaofei Pan proposed linking CEO compensation to the quality of information disclosure to promote high-quality information disclosure. With detailed data support, Associate Professor Xiaofei Pan further explained how companies respond to mandatory information disclosure policies and what incentive measures they have taken. The research pointed out that these behaviors are not only closely related to economic construction, but also highly relevant to culture and awareness of information disclosure. Overall, such policies significantly influence the behavioral structure of companies, particularly in terms of incentives, penalties, and morality, deeply demonstrating how policies shape corporate behavior and promote the fulfillment of social responsibilities.

Finally, the participants had an active academic exchange with Associate Professor Xiaofei Pan, and jointly conducted academic discussions on the theme of the lecture. Associate Professor Xiaofei Pan provided detailed answers to the questions and puzzles of the teachers and students. Professor Minggui Yu expressed his gratitude to Professor Jin Shi for his speech, and the forum came to a successful conclusion.

Speaker Introduction

Dr Xiaofei Pan is Associate Professor of Finance at School of Business, University of Wollongong. He also serves as the Head of Postgraduate Studies and Co-Director of Centre of Contemporary Australasian Business and Economics (CCABES) at the School of Business. His research interests include corporate finance, political economy and financial institutions. His academic papers have been published in a number of prestigious international journals, such as Review of Finance, Management Science, Research Policy, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, European Accounting Review, Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory. He is currently serving as an Associate Editor at Emerging Market Review. He has received OCTAL awards, Best Paper awards and other various awards for his teaching and research.

Frontier Forum for Digital Technology and Finance introduction

Recent years have witnessed a dramatic acceleration in a digital revolution in economic sectors and a rapid adoption of the new generation of information technologies, such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, big data, etc. These technologies effectively set off the digital economy. It has become a key driving force in creating global economic growth, improving the modernization level of governance capabilities, and promoting high-quality economic development in China. In particular, digital finance is the most important part of the digital economy. To explore the development direction of the cross-integration of digital technology and finance, the Innovation and Talent Base for Digital Technology and Finance is hosting the “Frontier Forum for Digital Technology and Finance”, in collaboration with the School of Finance, Wenlan School of Business, Economics School, School of Information and Safety Engineering, School of Statistics and Mathematics, School of Public Finance and Taxation of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (ZUEL). This lecture series will invite the well-known scholars at home and abroad in digital technology, digital economy, digital finance, and other related fields as guest speakers, providing an open and cutting-edge academic exchange platform for interdisciplinary research on digital technology and finance.