Archives: AFFECT News

AFFECT/JFE Grant Recipient Projects

–Project 1–

Media Coverage of Female Researchers in Financial Economics (2010–2020)

As part of the AFFECT/JFE Data Grant Initiative, this publicly available dataset was created by Fabrizio Core, Ioanna Lachana, and Moqi Xu to support research on gender representation in financial economics. The Aca-Media dataset links English-language media coverage from 2010–2020 to individual researchers and their published work, enabling analysis of gender patterns in press visibility.

The dataset is accompanied by a detailed data manual and a research paper using the data. All materials are available for download below. Users are asked to cite the data manual and research paper when using the dataset.

Research Paper Citation: 

Core, Fabrizio and Groen-Xu, Moqi and Lachana, Ioanna, The Media Coverage of Female Scholars: Evidence for the Finance, Economics, And Business Disciplines (August 27, 2025). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5410042 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5410042

Data Manual Citation: 

Lachana, Ioanna and Core, Fabrizio and Groen-Xu, Moqi, ACA-MEDIA: A new dataset of media coverage of academics (July 06, 2025). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5014331 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5014331

–Project 2–

The Diversity of Conference Presenters in Virtual and In-Person Conferences (2017–2023)

This dataset was developed by Mitali Mathur, Jenna Stearns, and Keer Yang with support from the AFFECT/JFE Data Grant Initiative. It documents the gender and institutional affiliation of presenters, discussants, and session chairs at four major finance conferences—the AFA, SFS Cavalcade, WFA, and FMA—from 2017 through 2023. The data span in-person, virtual, and hybrid formats, enabling research on whether virtual conferences affect gender representation and access to prestigious speaking roles in academic finance.

The dataset and accompanying data manual are publicly available below. Please cite the data manual when using the dataset in your work.

Links:

Highlights of 2024

  • AFFECT Annual report 2024
  • In the last couple of years, AFFECT matured as an organization, with a set of established efforts that are expected to be repeated annually in years to come. These initiatives include (i) mentoring, (ii) grants to support networking and mentoring events, and (iii) departmental demographic survey. In 2024, much of the committee’s effort has been focused on perfecting and expanding these initiatives, as well as the processes and networks that support them.
  • In 2024, AFFECT had a new Director of Mentoring Veronika Pool who took over after a successful two-year tenure in the role by Michelle Lowry. Under Veronika’s leadership, AFFECT hosted one mentoring event that included 49 participants and five senior women as workshop speakers. More mentoring events are in the planning stage for the next year.
  • We received 58 applications for the in-person one-day mentoring event hosted by AFFECT ahead of the 2025 AFA. This represented a 36% decline relative to the prior year. The number of accepted mentees remained at 36 and the number of mentors remained at 12.
  • In the spring of 2024, AFFECT issued its third annual call for funding proposals for supplementary funds to support research-oriented events and other activities that promote gender equality in the academic finance profession and align with AFFECT’s Mission. AFFECT was able to provide funding for seven proposals. Three of these events were outside of U.S. We also started to collect a brief summary of the impact of funded events.
  • In 2024, with the generous support from the Journal of Financial Economics, AFFECT awarded one grant to a research proposal that involved collecting new data on the costs of showing emotions in academia.
  • In 2024, we produced a report based on the second Academic Finance Department Survey that was conducted in the fall of 2023.
  • In January 2025, the committee will also welcome six new members of the Advisory Board: Markus Brunnermeier, Anna Kovner, Kai Li, Juliana Salomao, David Scharfstein, and Pietro Veronesi.
  • Over the past year, a number of AFFECT committee members served different roles on AFA committees: Ayako Yasuda on the AFA Climate Survey Committee, CORD, and the AFA Nominating Committee; Anna Pavlova on the AFA Nominating Committee and the Fischer Black Prize committee; Laura Field on CORD; and Kai Li as director of the AFA board.
  • The AFFECT Data and Drinks reception is scheduled for 1/3/2025. Cornerstone is the generous and supportive sponsor of the event.In January 2025, the committee will welcome two new members: Diane Del Guercio (Oregon) and Simi Kedia (Rutgers), and say goodbye to two members: Victoria Ivashina and Kai Li.

2022 Research Highlight

Recent research documents virtual formats increased the representation of women in academic conferences and seminars (See Figure 2 of Skiles et al. (2022) and Biermann (2022), respectively).

As we return to in-person conference formats, AFFECT encourages conference organizers to try new ways of gathering that promote gender diversity. AFFECT will fund innovative ideas (look for AFFECT’s call for proposals in Spring 2023).