Research

Publications

Do Investors Care About Impact? with Julian Kölbel, Falko Paetzold & Stefan Zeisberger

The Review of Financial Studies, 2023, 16(5), 1737–1787

[Selected as Editor’s Choice and lead article] [Winner of the FIR-PRI Finance & Sustainability Award Best Published Article]

Summary: Investors are willing to pay for investments with impact, but they do not pay more for greater impact.

Can Sustainable Investing Save the World? Reviewing the Mechanisms of Investor Impact with Julian Kölbel, Falko Paetzold & Timo Busch.

Organization & Environment, 2020,  33(4), 554-574.

[Policy Impact: Draft EU Ecolabel Criteria for Retail Financial Products]

Summary: Literature review on the impact of sustainable investing, distinguishing between company impact and investor impact.

Working Papers

Green Investing and Political Behavior with Julian Kölbel, Stefano Ramelli, and Anna Vasileva

Conditionally accepted, The Review of Financial Studies

Summary: The opportunity to invest in green funds does not reduce individuals’ support for climate regulation.

Beliefs About the Climate Impact of Green Investing with Julian Kölbel and Camilla Weder

Summary: Most academic experts do not believe that a typical green fund has a meaningful climate impact; the vast majority of retail investors do.

The Impact of Climate Engagement: A Field Experiment with Julian Kölbel

Summary: In a field experiment with a global sample of large firms, we show that engagement by index providers can affect corporate climate policies.

The Market for Voluntary Carbon Offsets with Florian Berg, Marco Ceccarelli, Alexey Ivashchenko, Roberto Rigobon, and Remco Zwinkels

Summary: Prices for voluntary carbon credits are highly dispersed and are not primarily driven by their climate impact.

The Economic Impact of ESG Ratings with Florian Berg and Julian Kölbel

Summary: We find that changes in ESG ratings affect mutual fund holdings and stock returns, but find no evidence of real-world impact.

Environmental Sciences

Organic Micropollutants in Rivers Downstream of the Megacity Beijing: Sources and Mass Fluxes in a Large-Scale Wastewater Irrigation System with H. Singer, B. Pernet-Coudrier, W. Qi, H. Liu, P. Longrée, B. Müller & M. Berg

Environmental Science & Technology, 2012, 46(16), 8680-8688. 

Summary:  The Haihe River System drains the Chinese megacities Beijing and Tianjin, forming a large-scale irrigation system severely impacted by wastewater-borne pollution. 

Selected Practitioner & Policy Publications

The Investor's Guide to Impact with Julian Kölbel

Sustainable Investing and Climate Policies: Complements or Substitutes? E-axes Forum

Sustainable Investing Is Booming — But Where Is the Impact? Milken Institute Review

Does ESG Integration Impact the Real Economy? with Anne Kellers and Julian Kölbel

Verbessern nachhaltige Anlagen die Welt? with Julian Kölbel und Falko Paetzold, Die Volkswirtschaft