The Twelfth Wharton Conference on Liquidity and Financial Fragility

Call for Papers

Liquidity and financial fragility have been central to academic research and policy debates. In recent decades, episodes of market stress, such as the global financial crisis, the pandemic, rising geopolitical tensions, and early warning signs in private credit markets, have highlighted the complex interplay between liquidity provision, financial stability, and broader macroeconomic outcomes. Meanwhile, the rapid development and diffusion of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and fast payments, are reshaping markets and introducing new risks. Although government policies and interventions may help contain systemic risks, they also bring uncertainty and intensify tensions between asset prices and financial stability. As global financial conditions in 2026 continue to reflect elevated uncertainty, understanding the drivers and consequences of financial fragility and its global macroeconomic implications remains as vital as ever.

With this goal in mind, we are pleased to announce the 2026 Wharton Conference on Liquidity and Financial Fragility, building on the success of the past eleven editions. The twelfth edition will be held at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA), beginning on the morning of Friday, October 9, 2026, and concluding in the afternoon of Saturday, October 10, 2026. A conference dinner will take place on Friday evening, featuring a keynote address by Monika Piazzesi, the Joan Kenney Professor of Economics at Stanford University. Further details on past editions of the conference are available on the conference website: https://wifpr.wharton.upenn.edu/wharton-liquidity-conference/

We invite submissions of empirical and theoretical papers in various fields of economics and finance that relate to the broad theme of Liquidity and Financial Fragility. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Coordination failures, self-fulfilling beliefs, and runs
• Fragility in banks and non-bank institutions
• Liquidity and frictions in financial markets and macroeconomy
• Systemic risk and financial regulation
• Monetary policy and financial stability
• Artificial intelligence (AI) and its implications for financial macroeconomic stability
• The rise and potential risks in private credit markets
• New payment technologies, stablecoins, tokenization, and their financial stability implications
• Geopolitical tensions, trade conflicts, currency competition, and financial fragility
• Inflation, interest rate risks, and implications on financial fragility
• The real impact of crises and fragility on firms’ financing and investment policies

The organizers of the conference are Vincent Glode, Itay Goldstein, and Yao Zeng (all from Wharton Finance), and Guillermo Ordonez (from Penn Economics).

Please submit your paper through the form below.

The submission deadline is July 1, 2026. Authors of submitted papers will be notified of program decisions by August 15, 2026. We look forward to this intellectually exciting event.