Special Issue Conference:

“The Impact of Fintech and Climate Change on Agricultural Finance and Investment”

CONFERENCE THEME:

There is an ever increasing need to finance and invest in agriculture and related growth-enhancing sectors due to population pressures, changing dietary preferences, climate change, water needs and soil pollution. The COVID-19 pandemic has also highlighted the urgency of producing more agricultural products, at higher quality and in a more sustainable way. In addition, geopolitical uncertainty, such as the recent Russia-Ukraine crisis, has also posed multiple threats to global food supply and highlighted the need to ensure agriculture is more resilient. Rapidly evolving technological innovation is opening new possibilities for farmers and agriculture businesses to better access financial markets and credit to improve agricultural productivity. This innovation may also come some way to address key UN Development Goals, especially the alleviation of poverty.

With these facts in mind, the Northwest A&F University, China, the University of Edinburgh, University College London, Teesside University and the Financial Markets and Sustainability Group at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University) and Chinese Economic Association (Europe/UK), will collaborate with the Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money (JIFMIM) and Finance Research Letters (FRL) to jointly organize a special issue conference. The conference aims to bring together academics, policy makers and industry professionals and to provide them with the opportunity to present and share their research and interests on issues relating to the impact of financial technology and climate change on sustainable agricultural development.

We encourage submissions that provide cutting-edge insights into current research work related with the theme of the conference. Specific topics and research questions can include but are not limited to:

●The impact of digital financial transformation in agriculture and rural areas

●Agriculture finance and agriculture insurance

●Agricultural finance and food security

●Farm household incomes and finances Fintech, financial inclusion, and income inequality

●Fintech and loan risk management

●The role of agricultural, climate and energy derivatives for hedging risks

●Formal and informal financial market for financing rural development

●The effects of geopolitical uncertainty on agricultural finance and investment

●Bankruptcy risk prediction of Agro-farm using big data analytics

●Issues associated with portfolio risk management and risk pricing of agricultural products

●Financing sustainable agriculture under climate change

●The impacts of climate finance and investment on agricultural carbon emissions

●Impacts of climate change on agricultural production, consumption, prices, and trade

CONFERENCE SUBMISSIONS PROCEDURE:

Submissions to the conference will be in the form of complete papers emailed to frl_conference2022@163.com by 30 September 2022. Papers will be reviewed for presentation at the conference and authors will be notified by 10 October 2022.

PUBLICATION OPPORTUNITIES:

The JIFMIM and FRL will publish special issues/sections based on this conference. The journal editors will work with the guest editorial team to select papers from those presented at the conference to be considered for publication with JIFMIM or FRL. The invited submissions will then proceed through the standard review process via the Elsevier Editorial Manager platform. Note that the focus of the JIFMIM special theme is on cross-country studies, and will favour theoretical and empirical papers that shed light on the specific conference topics outlined above. Non-international and shorter papers on these specific conference topics will be considered for publication with FRL.

CONFERENCE CO-CHAIRS:

Minjuan Zhao, Northwest A&F University, China

Baofeng Shi, Northwest A&F University, China

Jonathan A. Batten, RMIT University, Australia

SPECIAL THEME GUEST EDITORS:

Mohammad Abedin, Teesside University, UK

Yizhe Dong, University of Edinburgh Business School, UK

Xi Liang, University College London, UK

Baofeng Shi, Northwest A&F University, China

IMPORTANT DATES:

30 September 2022: Deadline for conference submission

10 October 2022: Notice of acceptance for the conference

20 October 2022: Conference registration deadline

29-30 October 2022: A two-day conference will be held in Yangling China, at Northwest A&F University

15 January 2023: Deadline for invited paper submissions to the journals

July of 2023: Completion of the first round of reviews

End of 2023: Completion of all reviews and Publication

CONFERENCE ACADEMIC COMMITTEE:

Mohammad Abedin, Teesside University, UK

Galina Andreeva, University of Edinburgh Business School, UK

Jonathan A. Batten, RMIT University, Australia

Raffaella Calabrese, University of Edinburgh Business School, UK

Jian Chen, Nottingham University Business School, UK

Yizhe Dong, University of Edinburgh Business School, UK

Iftekhar Hasan, Fordham University, USA

Wenxuan Hou, University of Edinburgh Business School, UK

Bingyi Kang, Northwest A&F University, China

Zhiyong Li, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics

Xi Liang, University College London, UK

Diandan Ma, University of Auckland, NZ

Sushanta Mallick, Queen Mary University of London, UK

Zhifu Mi, University College London, UK

Baofeng Shi, Northwest A&F University, China

Liming Wang, University College Dublin, Ireland

Tingting Wang, Northwest A&F University, China

Xianli Xia, Northwest A&F University, China

Bing Xu, Heriot-Watt University, UK

Xiaohua Yu, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany

Bohui Zhang, Chinese University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen, China

Jeffrey Zhang, University of Dayton, USA

Minjuan Zhao, Northwest A&F University, China

CONTACT:

For general enquires about the conference and special issues should be directed to Baofeng Shi (shibaofeng@nwsuaf.edu.cn) or Chunliu Dong (lifeg80@163.com).

29-30 October 2022

College of Economics and Management,Northwest A&F University, China (hybrid conference)