This symposium is intended to provide a platform for researchers to discuss fundamental research and policy issues related to emergingfinancial markets. Emerging economies, including China, India, Brazil, Russia, South Africa and others, have experienced rapid economic growth over the past several decades and they now constitute half of the world’s GDP. Capital markets in those countries have been developed more slowly and insufficiently to fund the expanding growth opportunities. Further, uneven quality domestic institutions impede external capital from satisfying that unmet demand for capital. With these challenges, there has been a growing research interest in using the unique institutional settings and rich data sources in emerging economies to study a range of fundamental questions in finance. Building on the success of the first two symposia in 2012 and 2013 which focused exclusively on China’s financial development, we broaden the theme of this year’s symposium to study emerging financial markets as a “lab” to study fundamental questions in financial economics, We welcome research not only on China, but also from emerging markets well beyond. Possible topics include (but are not restricted to): l The unique roles of government and the legal system protecting investors in emerging economies offer new data on corporate governance, organizational form, political economy, and economic performance. l Capital markets in emerging economies, dominated by individual investors and frequently affected by speculative episodes, offer unique opportunities to study speculative trading, asset price bubbles, and many other issues related to behavioral finance and investor protection. l The rapid development of financial institutions in recent years provides opportunities to study financial development and its impact on the real economy. l Housing booms and near collapses offer unparalleled opportunities to study how banks, government stimulus and other sociological factors such as rising inequality and lack of savings vehicles impact the real estate sectors and asset markets. l The vibrant private equity industry provides a new ground for studying entrepreneurship and technology innovations in a transitional economy.