About me
Ekaterina Volkova
I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Finance at the Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Melbourne.
My research examines corporate governance and the politics of financial regulation, in particular, how large shareholders and regulators (such as the SEC and the Department of Justice) shape corporate policy. I use textual analysis and machine learning to extract quantitative information from corporate disclosures.
I also co-organise the Asia-Pacific Corporate Finance Online Workshop, which hosts 2–3 sessions per semester for junior scholars in the region to present their work. Email me if you’d like to be added to the mailing list.
News
Mar 2026 New working paper Him Too? Analyzing the Effects of Epstein Connections, with Marina Gertsberg and Michaela Pagel.
Feb 2026 Discussed Antitrust Enforcement Increases Economic Activity (with Tania Babina, Simcha Barkai, Jessica Jeffers, and Ezra Karger) on The Brattle Exchange podcast , as part of the FIRN Annual Brattle Prize.
Jan 2026 Regulatory Fragmentation (with Joseph Kalmenovitz and Michelle Lowry) won the Journal of Finance Brattle Prize (Distinguished Paper). Featured on HKU Jockey Club and their podcast .
Recent Conferences
Working Papers
Lobbying Congress versus Agencies
Revise and Resubmit at The Journal of Finance
Presented at HKU Summer Finance Conference, Essex University, Manchester University, Lancaster University, McGill University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Sydney Banking and Financial Stability Conference
Antitrust Enforcement Increases Economic Activity
Conditionally Accepted at American Economic Journal, Applied Economics
The Brattle Group FIRN Best Paper Award
Presented at EFA, AEA and NBER SI, Boston College, the Center for Equitable Growth, Columbia University, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Emory University, the Stigler Center, University of Melbourne, and University of Warwick.
Summary at Promarket
Publications
Regulatory Fragmentation
Brattle Group Prize (Distinguished paper), The Journal of Finance (2025)
Best paper award at FMARC conference
Best paper award at CAFM conference
Presented at AFA, Future of Financial Information Conference, FIRN, APRCF Conference, Copenhagen Business School, the Federal Reserve, George Mason University, University of Rochester, Boston College, University of Toronto, University of Melbourne, University of Washington, Wayne State University, Florida International University, University of Bath, University of Bristol.
Is Blockholder Diversity Detrimental?
Management Science (2025)
Presented at the AFA, FMA, FIRN, Frontiers of Finance, QCFC, the Bank of Israel, IE HU Workshop, Ben Gurion University, Binghamton University, Cornell University, Copenhagen Business School, Emory University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Higher School of Economics, University of Hong Kong, London Business School, University of Melbourne, Michigan State University, New Economic School, and the University of Technology Sydney.
Information Revealed through the Regulatory Process: Interactions between the SEC and Companies ahead of Their IPO
The Review of Financial Studies (2020)
Watch Your Basket - To Determine CEO Compensation
Financial Management (2019)
Can VPIN Forecast Geopolitical Events? An Application to the Crimean Crisis
Annals of Finance (2018)
News coverage in Bloomberg, Washington Post, Radio Liberty, Der Standard, Vedomosti
Review Chapters
Initial Public Offering: A Synthesis of the Literature and Directions for Future Research
Review Chapter in Foundation and Trends in Finance (2017)
Datasets
Rule Relatedness
Company-specific measure of rule relatedness for all proposed and final rules between 1999 and 2023.
Blockholder Ownership Dataset
This dataset covers positions of all large shareholders in all US public companies from 1998 until 2023.