Florian Heeb, Julian Kölbel, Falko Paetzold, Stefan Zeisberger, Do Investors Care about Impact?, The Review of Financial Studies, Vol. 36 (5), 2023. (Journal Article)

We assess how investors’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for sustainable investments responds to the social impact of those investments, using a framed field experiment. While investors have a substantial WTP for sustainable investments, they do not pay significantly more for more impact. This also holds for dedicated impact investors. When investors compare several sustainable investments, their WTP responds to relative, but not to absolute, levels of impact. Regardless of investments' impact, investors experience positive emotions when choosing sustainable investments. Our findings suggest that the WTP for sustainable investments is primarily driven by an emotional, rather than a calculative, valuation of impact. |
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Diana Bonfim, Geraldo Cerqueiro, Hans Degryse, Steven Ongena, On-Site Inspecting Zombie Lending, Management Science, Vol. 69 (5), 2023. (Journal Article)
 
"Zombie lending" remains a widespread practice by banks around the world. In this paper, we exploit a series of large-scale on-site inspections made on the credit portfolios of several Portuguese banks to investigate how these inspections affect banks’ future lending decisions. We find that an inspected bank becomes 20% less likely to refinance zombie firms, immediately spurring their default. Overall, banks seemingly reduce zombie lending because the incentives to hold these loans disappear once they are forced to recognize losses. |
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Steven Ongena, Bankers and Climate, In: ZEW Conference on Ageing and Sustainable Finance. 2023. (Conference Presentation)

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Redaktion, Alexander Wagner, Shortseller mit Nutzen für den Aktienmarkt? Leerverkäufer Hindenburg Research, Fraser Perring & Co., In: finanzen.ch, 23 April 2023. (Media Coverage)

Shortseller haben unter Firmenlenkern oft keinen sehr guten Ruf - und auch viele Anleger dürften ihnen gegenüber eher negativ eingestellt sein. Denn die Leerverkäufer verdienen ihr Geld mit der Wette auf fallende Aktienkurse und sorgen mitunter selbst dafür, dass sich der Anteilsschein eines Unternehmens in die gewünschte Richtung bewegt. Doch laut Experten erfüllen sie mit ihrem Vorgehen eine wichtige Funktion am Markt. |
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Anton Fedosov, Liudmila Zavolokina, Sina Krumhard, Elaine May Huang, “This Could Be The Day I Die”: Unpacking Interpersonal and Systems Trust in a Local Sharing Economy Community, In: CHI '23: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2023-04-23. (Conference or Workshop Paper published in Proceedings)

The rapid development of the “sharing economy” enables the effective and efficient coordination, acquisition, distribution, and sharing of many kinds of different resources. Beyond the well-known sharing economy services such as Airbnb and Uber, an increasing number of local sharing initiatives have established online platforms and services to facilitate access to the shared resources within their local communities. With the automation and complexity of digital tools and platforms, and the specific challenges of online sharing communities, users’ trust and reliance become increasingly critical for successful use and adoption. In our qualitative study in collaboration with two industry partners (a local sharing community and a large infrastructure provider in Switzerland), we unpack various perspectives of interpersonal trust in the community and the systems trust of the supporting technologies. On this basis, we elicited a set of design opportunities for future platforms in the context of sharing economy. |
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Arthur Carvalho, Liudmila Zavolokina, Suman Bhunia, Monu Chaudhary, Nitharsan Yoganathan, Promoting Inclusiveness and Fairness through NFTs: The Case of Student-Athletes and NILs, In: CHI '23: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2023-04-23. (Conference or Workshop Paper published in Proceedings)
 
Recent regulatory changes have enabled NCAA student-athletes to proft from their name, image, and likeness (NIL), departing from previous policies requiring those athletes to maintain their amateur status. However, despite the changes, it is unlikely that all the approximately 500,000 NCAA student-athletes will proft from NIL contracts. Within this context, we study how to design a fair and inclusive solution that may help all student-athletes se- cure NIL fnancial resources. Following a design science approach, we defne design requirements after interviewing student-athletes. Subsequently, we derive three design principles: inclusiveness, fairness, and transparency. Thereafter, we suggest a blockchain-based artifact that satisfes all design principles. Our idea lies in designing collectibles as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that pay diferent roy- alties whenever a transaction (purchase or exchange) happens in diferent markets (primary or secondary). Finally, we evaluate our solution by discussing its features with current student-athletes. |
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Mark Buchanan, Stefano Battiston, Science strengthened banks — but how long will stability last? , In: Nature, 19 April 2023. (Media Coverage)

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Chris Alderson, Stefano Battiston, Science strengthened banks - but how long will stability last?, In: Quick Telecast, 19 April 2023. (Media Coverage)

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Christian Rappaz, Marc Chesney, Marc Chesney: «La finance casino nous met tous en danger», In: L'illustré, 18 April 2023. (Media Coverage)

Professeur de finances mathématiques à l’Université de Zurich et auteur du livre «La crise permanente», l’économiste Marc Chesney ne fait pas vraiment confiance aux banques systémiques. La faute, selon lui, à la Finma, à la BNS et à la majorité de l’élite politique qui, après l’effondrement d’UBS en 2008, ont pudiquement fermé les yeux sur les dérives des grandes banques. |
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Redaktion, Alexander Wagner, Minimierung von Klimarisiken vs. Portfoliodiversifikation, In: Absolut Research, 18 April 2023. (Media Coverage)

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Suzanne Tolmeijer, Vicky Arpatzoglou, Luca Rossetto, Abraham Bernstein, Trolleys, crashes, and perception—a survey on how current autonomous vehicles debates invoke problematic expectations, AI and Ethics, 2023. (Journal Article)
 
Ongoing debates about ethical guidelines for autonomous vehicles mostly focus on variations of the ‘Trolley Problem’. Using variations of this ethical dilemma in preference surveys, possible implications for autonomous vehicles policy are discussed. In this work, we argue that the lack of realism in such scenarios leads to limited practical insights. We run an ethical preference survey for autonomous vehicles by including more realistic features, such as time pressure and a non-binary decision option. Our results indicate that such changes lead to different outcomes, calling into question how the current outcomes can be generalized. Additionally, we investigate the framing effects of the capabilities of autonomous vehicles and indicate that ongoing debates need to set realistic expectations on autonomous vehicle challenges. Based on our results, we call upon the field to re-frame the current debate towards more realistic discussions beyond the Trolley Problem and focus on which autonomous vehicle behavior is considered not to be acceptable, since a consensus on what the right solution is, is not reachable.
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Redaktion, Alexander Wagner, Hindenburg Research, Fraser Perring & Co.: Haben Shortseller einen Nutzen für den Aktienmarkt?, In: Head Topics, 14 April 2023. (Media Coverage)

Shortseller haben unter Firmenlenkern oft keinen sehr guten Ruf - und auch viele Anleger dürften ihnen gegenüber eher negativ eingestellt sein. Denn die Leerverkäufer verdienen ihr Geld mit der Wette auf fallende Aktienkurse und sorgen mitunter selbst dafür, dass sich der Anteilsschein eines Unternehmens in die gewünschte Richtung bewegt. Doch laut Experten erfüllen sie mit ihrem Vorgehen eine wichtige Funktion am Markt. Leerverkäufer mit wichtiger korrigierender Funktion für den Aktienmarkt Denn Experten sind sich einig, dass Shortseller an der Börse als wichtiges Korrektiv dienen. |
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Redaktion, Alexander Wagner, Hindenburg Research, Fraser Perring & Co.: Haben Shortseller einen Nutzen für den Aktienmarkt?, In: finanzen.net, 14 April 2023. (Media Coverage)

Shortseller haben unter Firmenlenkern oft keinen sehr guten Ruf - und auch viele Anleger dürften ihnen gegenüber eher negativ eingestellt sein. Denn die Leerverkäufer verdienen ihr Geld mit der Wette auf fallende Aktienkurse und sorgen mitunter selbst dafür, dass sich der Anteilsschein eines Unternehmens in die gewünschte Richtung bewegt. Doch laut Experten erfüllen sie mit ihrem Vorgehen eine wichtige Funktion am Markt. |
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Janos Allenbach-Ammann, Thorsten Hens, Last bank standing: what the new UBS means for Switzerland and Europe, In: AMWATCH, 13 April 2023. (Media Coverage)

The collapse of Credit Suisse and its takeover by UBS leave Switzerland with a large risk concentration in its one big bank and triggers a new debate on banking resolution at a European level. |
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Patricia Pálffy, Patrick Lehnert, Uschi Backes-Gellner, Social norms and gendered occupational choices of men and women: Time to turn the tide?, Industrial Relations, 2023. (Journal Article)
 
We analyze the relationship between social gender norms and adolescents' occupational choices by combining regional votes on constitutional amendments on gender equality with job application data from a large job board for apprenticeships. The results show that adolescent males in regions with stronger traditional social gender norms are more likely to apply for typically male occupations. This finding does not hold for females, suggesting that incentivizing men to break the norms and choose gender-atypical occupations (e.g., in healthcare) can be even more effective in accelerating advancement toward gender equality in the labor market than incentivizing women to choose STEM occupations. |
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Claudia Custodio, Miguel Ferreira, Emilia Garcia, Indirect Costs of Financial Distress, Review of Finance, Vol. forthcoming, 2023. (Journal Article)

We estimate the indirect costs of financial distress due to lost sales by exploiting real estate
shocks and cross-supplier variation in real estate assets and leverage. We show that for the
same client buying from different suppliers, the client’s purchases from distressed
suppliers decline by an additional 13% following a drop in local real estate prices. The
effect is more pronounced in more competitive industries, manufacturing, durable goods,
less-specific goods, and when the costs of switching suppliers are low. Our results suggest
that clients reduce their exposure to suppliers in financial distress. |
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Redaktion, Carmen Tanner, Die UBS übernimmt die CS und wird zur "Monsterbank", In: Radio SRF 4 NEWS, 7 April 2023. (Media Coverage)

Die CS kommt ins Straucheln und stürzt ab. Widerwillig und basierend auf Notrecht übernimmt die UBS für 3 Milliarden Franken die ansonsten verlorene Credit Suisse. Ist diese Zwangsfusion tatsächlich die beste Lösung? Kann eine neue Verantwortungskultur bei den Banken entstehen? Eine Reportage mit Analyse von Wirtschaftsprofessor Peter V. Kunz, und Carmen Tanner, Wirtschaftspsychologin, Institut für Banking und Finance, Uni Zürich. |
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Emmanuel Mamatzakis, Steven Ongena, Mike G. Tsionas, Why do households repay their debt in UK during the COVID-19 crisis?, Journal of Economic Studies, Vol. forthcoming, 2023. (Journal Article)

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Uschi Backes-Gellner, Patrick Lehnert, Berufliche Bildung als Innovationstreiber: Ein lange vernachlässigtes Forschungsfeld, Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Vol. 24 (1), 2023. (Journal Article)
 
Länder mit einer starken Betonung der beruflichen Bildung in ihren Bildungs- und Innovationssystemen, beispielsweise Deutschland und die Schweiz, zählen seit Jahren zu den innovativsten der Welt. Gleichzeitig konstatiert internationale Innovationsforschung, dass ein hoher Akademisierungsgrad (und damit gerade nicht die berufliche Bildung) für starke Innovationsleistungen unabdinglich ist. Wie lässt sich dieser Widerspruch erklären? In diesem Überblicksartikel zeigen Uschi Backes-Gellner und Patrick Lehnert anhand einer Aufarbeitung neuer Forschungserkenntnisse, warum die deutschsprachigen Länder nicht trotz, sondern gerade auch wegen ihres Berufsbildungssystems hochinnovativ sind. Zu den erforderlichen institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen für diesen Effekt gehören dabei die zukunftsorientierte Gestaltung und Aktualisierung von Berufsausbildungscurricula, die Vermittlung von breiten beruflichen (statt engen betriebsspezifischen) Kompetenzen in dualen Berufsausbildungsprogrammen, ein durchlässiges Bildungssystem mit attraktiven Karrierepfaden sowie eine Verknüpfung von tertiärer beruflicher Bildung und angewandter Forschung. |
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Patrick Lehnert, Michael Niederberger, Uschi Backes-Gellner, Eric Bettinger, Proxying economic activity with daytime satellite imagery: Filling data gaps across time and space, PNAS Nexus, Vol. 2 (4), 2023. (Journal Article)
 
This paper develops a novel procedure for proxying economic activity with daytime satellite imagery across time periods and spatial units, for which reliable data on economic activity are otherwise not available. In developing this unique proxy, we apply machine-learning techniques to a historical time series of daytime satellite imagery dating back to 1984. Compared to satellite data on night light intensity, another common economic proxy, our proxy more precisely predicts economic activity at smaller regional levels and over longer time horizons. We demonstrate our measure’s usefulness for the example of Germany, where East German data on economic activity are unavailable for detailed regional levels and historical time series. Our procedure is generalizable to any region in the world, and it has great potential for analyzing historical economic developments, evaluating local policy reforms, and controlling for economic activity at highly disaggregated regional levels in econometric applications. |
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