Chicago Booth Alumni Club Germany

Fair Value Accounting: Did it Contribute to Financial Crisis?
18 August in Frankfurt

To determine whether Fair Value Accounting (FVA) contributed to the current crisis in financial markets, economists must examine the explicit and implicit connections of reported accounting numbers to the actions of the players in the financial markets and then ask whether such connections can create or exacerbate the problems that occurred over the last year.

Prof. Christian Leuz, Joseph Sondheimer Professor of International Economics, Finance and Accounting at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, has analyzed the potential connections which include contracts (e.g., covenants and margin requirements), management incentives, and regulatory capital requirements. Prof. Leuz will share key findings of research jointed conducted with Prof. Christian Laux (Goethe University Frankfurt and CFS) on the pros and cons of FVA and its role in the crisis. One of the papers is available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1392645

5:30 pm
House of Finance, Campus Westend
Goethe University Frankfurt
Grüneburgplatz 1, 60323 Frankfurt

The annual conference will be held this year in Chicago on 13-15 November and the topic will be "Chancen in der Krise". The conference, which invites German speaking MBA students at top American universities, will feature a line-up on Germany's most influential business leaders. Speakers include:

The Chicago Booth Wealth Management Roundtable is proud to invite you to its next event. Our guest Dr. Thomas Druyen, Professor at the Sigmund Freud Universität, coined the notion of “Vermögenskultur” in the Germanspeaking world. Professor Druyen will speak on "Die Psychologie des Wohlstandes im interkulturellen Vergleich" (“The Psychology of Wealth - a Cross-cultural Comparison”, speech in German language!) Click here to view the PDF flyer.

The Wealth Management Roundtable is a forum to exchange views on best practices, regulatory challenges, communications, relationship issues and learning opportunities of international wealth managers and their clients. Fairness, professionalism and mutual support extend to all aspects of the dialogue. The meetings take place three times a year in London, Frankfurt and Zurich in cooperation with a national Chicago Booth Alumni Club.

Where: CMS Hasche Sigle, Barckhausstraße 12-16, 60325 Frankfurt
When: 23 April 2009 7-9 pm
Cost: EUR 65.00

This event is sponsored by:

University of Chicago Booth School of Business (GSB) Business Forecast has a long tradition in the United States stretching back to 1954. The goal of the Business Forecast is to bring together top GSB professors, alumni and special guests representing the best minds in business and financial policy to offer their views on the year ahead. The Business Forecast is held in 10 cities in the United States and has been extended in recent years to Singapore, London, Brussels and … Frankfurt am Main.

Prognosticators:

Filippo di Mauro, AM '85

Head of External Developments Division,
European Central Bank

Marvin Zonis

Professor Emeritus of Business Administration
Chicago Booth

Norbert Walter

Managing Director, Deutsche Bank Research and Chief Economist, Deutsche Bank Group

Moderator:
Joerg Kukies, PhD '01

Managing Director, Structured Finance, Goldman Sachs

This event is sponsored by:

All MBA Happy Hour Munich

The all MBA Happy Hour Munich in cooperation with Arthur D. Little, The Chicago Graduate School of Business, Columbia Business School inviting to the 4th annual all MBA keynote, hosted by Deloitte & Touche GmbH

“Fossil Fuel and Climate Change” Challenges for the Automotive Industry in the 21st Century
by Dr. Wolfgang Bernhard, MBA Columbia Business School, ‘88, former CEO Volkswagen Brand Group

Chicago GSB Social Weekend in Germany

Where Various venues in the Vorderpfalz/Deutsche Weinstrasse area

Reconnect with old classmates and extend your Chicago GSB network
• Taste the international wines of Vinothek
• Take a tour of the BASF Winecellar
• Visit famous German winemakers
• Dine in one of the most recommended restaurants of the region
• Test your handicap in a golf tournament
• Learn about biogas technology
• Have lots of fun!

Want to get a handle on the economic year ahead? How will global political and economic issues funnel down to the everyday numbers affecting business? GSB professors and alumni who represent some of the best minds in business will take a look at what they see as the trends shaping 2008. From oil prices to elections, the Chinese economy to the value of the dollar, Business Forecast panelists offer statistics on and interpretations of important factors affecting business around the world. The prognosticators included:

A presentation by Anil Kashyap,
Edward Eagle Brown Professor of Economics and Finance
University of Chicago Graduate School of Business

November 28, 2007, 6:30 pm
This event was sponsored by:

Professor Kashyap will lead a discussion of the issues raised by the varying reactions of central banks to the financial market turbulence this summer. We will analyze the sources of the market dislocations and the different policy tools that were deployed.

Anil Kashyap is the Edward Eagle Brown Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Kashyap joined the faculty in 1991 and currently teaches courses on "Corporation Finance" and "Understanding Central Banks". On behalf of the GSB he serves as one of the faculty Co-Directors of Initiative on Global Markets. Professor Kashyap's principal research interests include Japan (particularly the financial system), monetary policy, banking, and the sources of business cycles. His research has been published in a number of academic journals and books, won him grants from the National Science Foundation and earned him an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship in Economics. His book "Corporate Financing and Governance in Japan: The Road to the Future" (with Takeo Hoshi) was published by MIT Press in 2001 and was selected for the 45th Nikkei Prize for Excellent Books in Economic Science. He has also edited Structural Impediments to Growth in Japan (The University of Chicago Press, 2003) and Monetary Policy Transmission in the Euro Area (Cambridge University Press, 2003). In 2001 he visited the Bank of England as a Senior Houblon-Norman Fellow.

Global Accounting Language: Do capital markets benefit?

A presentation by Christian Leuz,
Professor and the Charles M. Harper Faculty Fellow Chicago GSB,
August 21 at 7 pm,
Hilton Hotel Frankfurt
Hochstr. 4 , 60313 Frankfurt

Over the last number of years the quest for a global accounting language has gained considerable momentum. Almost 100 countries have decided to require the use of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for listed companies at some point in the near future. In the EU, IFRS reporting is mandatory since the end of 2005. The main objective of this requirement was to increase the transparency and comparability of financial reports, and ultimately to improve the functioning of the EU capital markets. Have these expected benefits materialized? Professor Leuz has conducted several research studies on the economic consequences of international reporting, in particular issues relating to market liquidity and firms' cost of capital. He was also asked by the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) to prepare a research report on the capital-market effects of IFRS adoption in the EU. In his talk, he will share key findings of the report and his research studies with us. He will also discuss key challenges going forward as well as touch on related regulatory issues, such as recent governance regulations (such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act).

Christian Leuz, Professor and the Charles M. Harper Faculty Fellow of Accounting at the Graduate School of Business of the University of Chicago. He is also an Executive Board Member of the Initiative on Global Markets, a Research Associate at the European Corporate Governance Institute and a Fellow at Wharton’s Financial Institution Center. His research examines the role of corporate disclosures, accounting transparency and disclosure regulation in capital markets, corporate governance and corporate financing. His most recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Financial Economics, and Journal of Accounting and Economics. Born in Germany, Professor Leuz earned his doctoral degree and “Habilitation” at the Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany. Prior to this position, he was the Harold Stott Term Assistant Professor in Accounting at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a visiting doctoral fellow at the Simon School of Business, University of Rochester.

Professor Kevin Murphy is the recipient of the 1997 John Bates Clark Medal of the American Economic Association, which is given once every two years to the most outstanding American economist under the age of 40. Murphy was cited for his study of the causes of growing income inequality in the United States between white-collar and blue-collar workers. His findings link the growth in income inequality to growth in the demand for skilled labor. In September, 2005, Professor Murphy, was named a MacArthur Fellow. MacArthur Fellowships, commonly known as genius awards, are an extraordinary form of recognition. According to the MacArthur Foundation, the awards go to “talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction” and are investments “in a person’s originality, insight, and potential.”

Professor Murphy is the recipient of numerous other awards and fellowships, including a Sloan Foundation Fellowship and an Earhart Foundation Fellowship. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the author of more than 50 published articles. Professor Murphy’s most recent research has focused on returns to education and skill, unemployment, human capital and growth, and income inequality. Articles about Murphy’s research have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many local papers. His research has covered a wide range of topics including economic growth, income inequality, valuing medical research, rational addiction, and unemployment.

University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (GSB) Business Forecast has a long tradition in the United States stretching back to 1954. The goal of the Business Forecast is to bring together top GSB professors, alumni and special guests representing the best minds in business and financial policy to offer their views on the year ahead. The Business Forecast is held in 10 cities in the United States and has been extended in recent years to Singapore, London, Brussels, Hong Kong and … for the first time in 2007 Frankfurt am Main.