The PRI Academic Seminar Series invites leading ESG experts to present their research to academic scholars and investors.
The aim of the series is to:
enable investors to learn from cutting edge research and engage with authors directly
give world thought leaders in responsible investing the opportunity to present their work and obtain valuable feedback
provide an opportunity to junior scholars to network with the speaker and obtain career advice
be more inclusive and strengthen our global PRI Academic Network community throughout the year
Each session will consist of two parts:
Part 1: Presentation (60min interactive seminar) – open to all
Part 2: Network opportunity and career advice for junior scholars with speaker (30min) – open to PhD students and junior faculty
Join PRI on Friday, 1 December to hear from:
Zacharias Sautner
Professor of Sustainable Finance, University of Zurich
Senior Chair, Swiss Finance Institute
Read Zacharias’ bio
Paper: Do Investors Care About Biodiversity?
Abstract: This paper introduces a new measure of a firm’s negative impact on biodiversity, the corporate biodiversity footprint, and studies whether it is priced in an international sample of stocks. On average, the biodiversity footprint does not explain the cross-section of stock returns. However, a biodiversity footprint premium (higher returns for firms with larger footprints) began emerging after the Kunming Declaration (October 2021), which capped the first part of the recent UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15). Consistent with this finding, stocks with large footprints lost value in the days after the Kunming Declaration. Their stock prices dropped further after the Montreal Agreement (December 2022), which concluded the second part of the COP15. The results indicate that investors have started to require a risk premium upon the prospect of, and uncertainty about, future regulations to preserve biodiversity.