Financial Markets Research and ESG (plus the Global Sustainability Goals in Agenda 2030)

Purpose and goal

This project includes 3 research and one data visualization project to strengthen the financial sector´s readiness and ability to contribute to climate change, ESG aspects of the financial system, as well as its role in contributing to meeting the Global Sustainability Goals of Agenda 2030. Our research projects cover "Hedging climate risk: A corporate financial perspective", "Shareholder engagement in sustainability and climate change: pathways to successful results" and "Persistence in learning; evidence from a randomized controlled trial with bank customers."

Expected effects and result

1. Visualize research results and trends in our databases 2. Provide a comprehensive assessment of corporate hedging policies against climate risk, both theoretically and empirically. 3. Identify patterns of attributes that are present when successful shareholder engagements are achieved, on climate change as well as sustainability. 4. Identify the mechanisms linking inflation and other macro and micro-economic variables, their learning about those mechanisms, its impact on financial and labor market decisions, and whether and for whom this learning is longlasting.

Planned approach and implementation

We will 1. collaborate with an external company that is an expert in visualizing complex data and researchers from SHoF and MISUM. 2. use electricity generators as a laboratory and employ natural language processing algorithms to parse the regulatory filings to identify firms’ hedging activities. 3. utilize Sustainalytics data to analyze engagements on climate change and sustainability, using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). 4. send out a second wave of our initial survey that will enable us to study learning persistence