Marc Chesney, Une appellation qui serait un oxymore?, In: Le Temps, p. 11, 22 November 2021. (Newspaper Article)
OPINION Pour le professeur Marc Chesney, la finance n’accorde de valeur qu’à ce qui possède un prix. Une conception utilitariste de la nature qui conduit forcément à la prédation. Comment distinguer le «greenwashing» d’un véritable engagement? A ses yeux, c’est au monde académique de fournir les outils. |
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Redaktion, Marc Chesney, Anlauf gescheitert: Initiative für Mikrosteuer kommt nicht zustande, In: St. Galler Tagblatt, 9 November 2021. (Media Coverage)
Das Schweizer Stimmvolk wird nicht über eine Mikrosteuer im Zahlungsverkehr abstimmen. Für eine Volksinitiative mit diesem Anliegen kamen zu wenige Unterschriften zusammen. |
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Michael Schäfer, Annette Krauss, Als Privater kann man sehr wohl einen positiven Beitrag in Entwicklungsländern leisten, In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 8 November 2021. (Media Coverage)
Die Corona-Krise hat viele Bemühungen zurückgeworfen, bedürftigen Menschen in armen Ländern zu einem nachhaltig besseren Leben zu verhelfen. Es gibt aber auch etliche Erfolgsgeschichten, an denen Schweizer Akteure einen wichtigen Anteil haben. |
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Valentin Köferli, Sustainability and Crisis Resilience of European Stocks in Times of Covid-19, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2021. (Master's Thesis)
Whether engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) is value-enhancing is sub-ject to controversial debate in academia and praxis. The unexpected Covid-19 shock and an increased awareness to and demand for CSR during the Covid-19 pandemic give incentive to re-examine the relationship between CSR and financial performance. In a cross-sectional analysis of European firms, I find that CSR ratings are unrelated with stock performance during crisis and recovery periods around Covid-19. The find-ings are robust against using different variations of CSR scores. They also hold for industry- and country-specific analyses. Thus, CSR does translate into increased crisis resilience for European stocks. |
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Redaktion, Marc Chesney, Evergrande-Probleme für Schweizer Banken, In: Tagesschau.de, 4 October 2021. (Media Coverage)
Die Probleme des Immobilienriesen Evergrande machen Europas Börsen seit Wochen zu schaffen. Die drohende Pleite könnte mit ihren Konsequenzen vor allem Schweizer Banken hart treffen. |
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Iva Cosic, Weniger Rendite durch nachhaltiges Investieren? Eine Analyse am Schweizer Aktienmarkt, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2021. (Bachelor's Thesis)
Diese empirische Arbeit untersucht, ob nachhaltiges Investieren am
Schweizer Aktienmarkt einen Einfluss auf die erzielte Rendite hat. In
Anlehnung an die Norwegische Arbeit von Fiskerstrand et al. (2020)
wurden die selben Regressionen, jedoch mit Schweizer Aktienmarktdaten
von den Jahren 2010 bis 2019 verwendet. Dabei werden Portfolios,
gemessen an ihrer Sensitivität gegenüber dem SXI Swiss Sustainability
25 Index, mittels einer einfachen Regression gebildet und die Renditen
anhand des Vier-Faktoren-Modells von Carhart (1997) verglichen. Da
die erhaltenen Resultate des multiplen Regressionsmodells nicht signifikant
sind, kann keine Aussage über den Zusammenhang zwischen der
Nachhaltigkeit der Investition und der Aktienrendite getroffen werden. |
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Redaktion, Marc Chesney, Ungleichheit: Vier Profs für die 99 Prozent, In: WOZ Die Wochenzeitung, 2 September 2021. (Media Coverage)
Die 99-Prozent-Initiative bringe viele Vorteile, sagen vier
WirtschaftsprofessorInnen: für die Arbeitsplätze, die
Finanzstabilität, die Demokratie und die Umwelt. |
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Tim Müller, The Financial Inclusion Market Segment Worldwide: An Analysis of Recent Market Data, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2021. (Bachelor's Thesis)
This thesis examines the initial analysis of the data set on financial inclusion obtained from Atlas in 2020. Potentially improving the data transparency in the sector for all stakeholders, the value and benefits of these data points are deliberated. By presenting the most relevant and informative variables via tabulated formats and eye-catching line and bar plots, this work provides a first visual illustration of what explanatory aspects the data set can offer. The focus is primarily laid on showing possibilities of how to graphically interpret key indicators or benchmark comparisons in fields such as financial performance, social performance, or credit risk. |
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Jérôme Gretener, Swiss Official Development Assistance and its Sustainability Footprint: An Examination of the Water and Sanitation Sector in Africa, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2021. (Bachelor's Thesis)
Official Development Assistance (ODA) is government provided aid that aims to enable
economic development and welfare in the receiving developing countries. Amongst the
different sources of financing for development aid, ODA remains the “gold standard”.
Financing for development can also be provided in the form of resource flows other than ODA,
for example by foreign direct investment (FDI), personal remittances or private grants.
The water and sanitation sector is of central importance as it is tightly connected to many of the
major challenges that developing countries are facing, for example in health care or in
agriculture. Billions of people, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, remain without access to basic
sanitation and drinking water services. ODA projects concerning the water and sanitation sector
in Africa aim to ameliorate the situation.
In this thesis, two Swiss ODA projects focussing on the water and sanitation sector in Tanzania
and in Mozambique were summarised, and by comparison with existing literature their
sustainability footprint was assessed. In general, good governance, transparency,
accountability, as well as motivation, training and education of locals have the ability to lead to
sustainable outcomes.
While ODA is not the only source of developmental aid, it is certainly the most documented
one. One of the core challenges of development cooperation remains consistent and
standardised reporting on measures and outcomes. To achieve sustainability of investments in
the future, the exchange of knowledge, know-how, local expertise and experience is crucial.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) could help to guide development cooperation into
a more sustainable future. |
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Mirjam Haab, Infrastructure Project Finance in Sub-Saharan Africa. A comprehensive analysis, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2021. (Master's Thesis)
This thesis investigates infrastructure project finance in Sub-Saharan Africa over a 30-year period. Realizing that a significant data and knowledge gap exists, the research analysis aims at reducing both gaps. A thorough descriptive analysis provides a holistic picture of the infrastructure project finance activity in the region over the period from 1990 to 2020. A multitude of current and historic trends are uncovered within it. A brief quantitative analysis meanwhile evaluates factors which could influence project finance and leads to speculate that there is a two-way relation between infrastructure project finance and economic output. |
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Pablo Bétrisey, The Banking Sector of Switzerland during the COVID-19 Crisis. An Analysis of Small, Medium-Sized and Systemically Important Banks, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2021. (Master's Thesis)
The COVID-19 crisis had a significant impact on the Swiss banking sector, espe-cially on small and medium-sized banks, but the Swiss federal council undertook several policy measures against it. The results of this master thesis provide meaningful insights on the regulatory Basel III framework that aims to prevent such crises. Therefore, Wolf-ram Mathematica and Excel were chosen as statistical tools to assess how the Swiss bank-ing sector evolved and how it was affected by the policy measures during this liquidity crunch. Moreover, liquidity and capital requirements and balance sheet data were ana-lysed providing empirical evidence for the Swiss economic environment.
Keywords: |
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Timon Hüsler, All that glitters might not be gold. Analysis of Sustainability Approaches of Publicly Listed Investment Funds, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2021. (Bachelor's Thesis)
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Marc Chesney, Dérèglements climatiques: les leçons à tirer de cet été meurtrier, In: Le Temps, p. online, 23 August 2021. (Newspaper Article)
Dans le monde académique, les courants dominants en économie et finance brillent par leur discrétion en ce qui concerne le dérèglement climatique et ses désastreuses conséquences économiques et sociales, affirme Marc Chesney, professeur à l’Université de Zurich |
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Gisela Liebe, Marc Chesney, Die Mikrosteuer kann eine Lösung sein, In: St. Galler Tagblatt, 14 August 2021. (Media Coverage)
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Riccardo Barbiero, The Impact of the Sustainable Financial Disclosure Regulation on Fund Holdings, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2021. (Master's Thesis)
This master’s thesis investigates the impact of the recent entrance into application
of the EU Sustainable Financial Disclosure Regulation on fund holdings.
Starting from a deep dive into the main features of this historic regulatory milestone,
I propose a methodological approach to measure the Regulation’s impact and
understand the main challenges surrounding data availability and quality. Due to
the novelty of the topic, updated data has not become available yet at the time of
writing. As such the paper has the nature of an "as-if" analysis were the signature
of the EU Taxonomy Regulation on the 18th of June 2020 is used as the simulated
shock event date. Through a regression discontinuity design, I conclude that, within
the scope of the simulated analysis, the SFDR had a significant and positive impact
on funds’ preference for high ESG score equities. Although companies with
higher ESG ratings are generally more likely to be included in funds’ portfolios after
the event, there is no clear link between being classified as a more sustainable
fund under the Regulation and preferring more sustainable equities compared to
less sustainable funds. |
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Ivana Zlomislic, Indirekte Effekte von Sustainable Investing: Einfluss der wachsenden privaten Nachfrage nach Sustainable Investing auf den Schweizer Vermögensverwaltungssektor, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2021. (Bachelor's Thesis)
Diese Arbeit untersucht, anknüpfend an die Diskussion um den Impact von Sustainable In-vesting (SI), welchen Effekt die wachsende private Nachfrage nach SI hervorbringt. Der Ana-lyseschwerpunkt liegt dabei nicht auf der Effektivität nachhaltiger Anlagestrategien, sondern auf den durch SI angeregten transformativen Einflüssen in der Branche, wodurch ein Beitrag zum besseren Verständnis indirekter Effekte von SI geboten wird. Gegenstand der Analyse sind Schweizer Vermögensverwalter, welche im Geschäftsfeld vermögender Privatkunden operie-ren. Mithilfe eines qualitativen Forschungsansatzes in Form von semi-strukturierten Interviews und deren inhaltsanalytischer Auswertung werden somit explorativ die Wirkungsmechanismen von SI auf die Vermögensverwaltungsbranche ermittelt. Schliesslich postulieren die inhalts-analytischen Erkenntnisse, dass der im Zuge der Nachhaltigkeitsbewegung unerlässliche Auf- und Ausbau eines SI Angebots zu einer systematischeren, umfassenderen sowie bewussteren Berücksichtigung von Nachhaltigkeit führt. Dies kann als gradueller Prozess der «ideellen» Verankerung betrachtet werden und unterstreicht somit die transformativen Einflüsse von SI. Allerdings beeinträchtigen vorherrschende brancheninterne sowie kundenseitige Barrieren die-sen Prozess, sodass lediglich von einer Tendenz und nicht von einem abgeschlossenen Prozess ausgegangen werden kann. |
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Redaktion, Marc Chesney, Les établissements bancaires publient des résultats bien meilleurs qu'attendu, In: RTS.ch, 29 July 2021. (Media Coverage)
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Manuel Mazidi, Semantic Text Analysis of Central Bank Communication: Evidence for Spillover Effects in Foreign Exchange Spot Markets, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2021. (Master's Thesis)
I analyze the Federal Reserve's and European Central Bank's communication to assess the immediate
market reaction in foreign exchange spot prices upon communication events. Unsupervised
machine learning-based topic modelling classies textual data from FOMC Minutes and ECB Monetary
Policy Accounts into their underlying discussion topics, and lexical sentiment analysis tracks
the sentiment and uncertainty within each topic over time. I nd that FX spot markets are sensitive
to the discussion about asset purchase programmes. Currency pairs of developed countries
react to uncertainty in nancial market related topics and react to monetary policy related discussion
regarding interest rates and in
ation in ECB communication. On the other hand, currency
pairs involving an emerging market currency seem to be more reactive towards discussion about
macroeconomic fundamentals. These ndings suggest that central banks are able to move FX spot
prices via communication only, which hints towards the functioning of a signalling and coordination
channel. |
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Tobias McCarthy, ESG and Alternative Factors in Corporate Bond Returns, University of Zurich, Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics, 2021. (Master's Thesis)
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Sébastien Ruche, Falko Paetzold, Risques: les grandes banques devront plus communiquer , In: Le temps, 1 June 2021. (Media Coverage)
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