Skandia Award 2022: Opportunities and challenges of ESG investing

Professor Laura T. Starks of McCombs Business School at the University of Texas is the recipient of the 2022 Skandia Research Award on Long-Term Savings. Professor Starks is one of the leading researchers in sustainable finance and has been granted the award for her contributions to the field of banking, insurance, and financial services.

The Swedish House of Finance, together with Skandia, invited practitioners and academics to the 2022 Skandia Award Seminar, entitled, “ESG Investing: Opportunities and Challenges”.

In this seminar, Professor Starks talked about considerations regarding environment, social and governance (ESG) investing, starting with the differentiation in investor motivations: financial risk and return considerations (i.e., ESG value), nonpecuniary preferences (i.e., ESG values), or a combination of the two.

From a high level perspective, she will address questions regarding the investment approach, such as whether to employ a negative screening approach or a positive tilt to the portfolio; how to think about integrating ESG principles into the investment process as well as engaging firm management on ESG principles; the role of third-party ESG ratings; the questions surrounding ESG portfolio disclosures and regulatory requirements, and the evidence that exists on the effects and effectiveness of these issues.

Watch the seminar video here.

About the Thule Foundation and the Skandia award

In order to increase knowledge of how long-term savings contribute to a sustainable society the Thule Foundation at Skandia supports research in the area of ‘Long-term savings.’ The Foundation provides graduate and postgraduate scholarships, master & bachelor theses awards, and, as in the present case, a research prize for outstanding researchers through the annual Skandia Award.

Links to: Previous recipients of the Skandia award

Ulrike MalmendierUniversity of California, Berkeley Haas, 2023

Laura T. StarksMcCombs Business School, University of Texas, 2022

Stijn Van NieuwerburghColumbia University, 2021

Annette Vissing-Jorgensen
Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley, 2020

Brigitte C. Madrian
Brigham Young University Marriott School of Business, 2019

Lasse Heje Pedersen
Copenhagen Business School and NYU and principal at AQR Capital Management, 2018

Annamaria Lusardi
George Washington University School of Business, 2017

Joshua Rauh
Stanford University, 2016

Ralph KoijenLondon Business School, 2015

Practical information

Date: October 13

Time:15:45 to 17:00, coffee and registration starts at 15:30

Location: Swedish House of Finance, Drottninggatan 98, 4th floor

General questions: event@houseoffinance.se
Press contact: Fathin Ungku, fathin.ungku@hhs.se

Seats are limited. Students will be placed on a waiting list and will receive an email a few days before the seminar.

Laura Starks

Laura T. Starks, Ph.D., is the George Kozmetsky Centennial Distinguished University Chair and Professor of Finance at the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin. Her current research focuses on ESG issues, including climate risk and board diversity, as well as molecular genetics and financial decisions. She has won many awards for her research and teaching, including the 2021 Moskowitz Prize, which is the premier global prize for research in sustainable finance. She is President of the American Finance Association. She has served on mutual funds’ boards of directors, pension fund advisory committees, the Board of Governors of the Investment Company Institute, and advisory committees for the Norwegian Government Pension Fund. She currently serves on advisory boards or committees for AIF Global, FTSE-Russell, Pacific Center for Asset Management, Texas Wall Street Women and PRI (Principles of Responsible Investing), where she is also Vice-Chair.

Moderator

Magnus Dahlquist, Swedish House of Finance at the Stockholm School of Economics.