Preliminary Call for Proposals: The Credit Crisis: Causes, Effects, and Lessons

             CALL FOR PROPOSALS FROM THE GAMMA FOUNDATION

            THE CREDIT CRISIS: CAUSES, EFFECTS, AND LESSONS

                           September 2, 2008
                                Zurich


      BSI AG, Lugano (Switzerland), is a Swiss bank active
      internationally in private banking. On the occasion of its
      125th anniversary, BSI created the BSI GAMMA Foundation to
      support academic research on issues in financial economics
      of interest to the field of asset management. Each year the
      Foundation organizes conferences on topics of special
      interest. In past years, the list of speakers has included
      David Blake, Robert Engle, Kristin Forbes, Will Goetzmann,
      Martin Gruber, Philippe Jorion, Vasant Naik, Terry Odean,
      Hayne Leland, Rafael La Porta, Stephen Ross, Myron Scholes,
      Andrei Shleifer, Jay Shanken, Robert Shiller, and Russell
      Wermers. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the BSI
      Gamma Foundation.

      The Foundation will organize a conference in Zurich on
      September 2, 2008, in collaboration with FinRisk and the
      Swiss Finance Institute. The conference will consist of
      papers on the credit crisis which started in 2007.


      TOPICS:

      Researchers are invited to submit proposals for papers to
      be presented at the conference. Topics of interest include
      the following:

      Did securitization go wrong?
      Did risk management go wrong?
      Why is liquidity so volatile and how can we measure its
      risk?
      Was there really systemic risk?
      Was there a lack of appropriate due diligence?
      How important are conflicts of interests for rating
      agencies?
      Should the shadow banking system be regulated?
      Has Basel II failed already?
      What was the contribution of monetary policy to the crisis?
      Are the markets for CDOs and credit derivatives efficient?
      What happened in interbank and repo markets?
      Are there useful lessons from past financial crises?
      How should fixed-income portfolios be managed in light of
      the recent events?
      What is the role of ratings in portfolio management?
      Did mark-to-market accounting contribute to the crisis?
      Did financial globalization exacerbate the crisis?
      How did the leverage of financial institutions affect the
      crisis?


      PAPER SUBMISSION PROCEDURE:

      The Foundation will consider proposals not exceeding 5,000
      words describing the goal of the paper and the data used. A
      short curriculum vitae should be included with the
      application. Authors who have a draft of a paper that they
      hope to expand and improve can append it to the proposal,
      but the proposal should be self-contained. The authors of
      proposals selected will receive a grant of $10,000 to help
      them conduct their research and develop it for presentation
      at the conference and for submission to an academic journal
      of their choice. In exceptional cases, the BSI GAMMA
      Foundation will consider requests for grants exceeding
      $10,000.

      The deadline for submission of the proposal is May 25,
      2008. The proposals will be evaluated by a Scientific
      Committee composed of Andrea Beltratti (Bocconi), Rajna
      Gibson (University of Zurich), and Rene Stulz (Ohio State
      University, Chair). The Foundation will announce the
      selection of projects by June 20, 2008. Proposals should be
      sent directly to the BSI GAMMA Foundation by e-mail (as a
      pdf attachment) or hardcopy at the following address:

      CONTACT:       BSI GAMMA Foundation
                     c/o BSI AG
                     Via Magatti 2
                     6900 Lugano (SWITZERLAND)
      Tel:           41 91 809 39 15
      Fax:           41 91 809 39 39
      Email:         MAILTO:gamma.foundation@bsi.ch
      Website:       http://www.bsigammafoundation.com


      FURTHER INFORMATION:

      For further information, please contact The BSI GAMMA
      Foundation or its President:

      CONTACT:       Professor Rene Stulz
                     The Ohio State University
      Email:         MAILTO:dice@cob.osu.edu
      Tel:           001 614 292 8449
Posted 5/2/08