FSinsight is pleased to announce the winnerof the 2012 Moskowitz Prize for SRI
October 3, 2012 | 2 min read
PietraRivoli, deputy dean and professor, McDonough School of
Business at GeorgetownUniversity and a longtime Moskowitz judge,
presentedthe 2012 Moskowitz prize to the winners last night at the
23rd SRI Conference. The prize-winners are: Elroy Dimson, emeritus professor of finance, LondonBusiness School;
Oğuzhan Karakaş, assistant professor, CarrollSchool of Management,
Boston College; and Xi Li, assistant professor, FoxSchool of Business,
Temple University.
Dimson,Karakaş, and Li examined highly intensive shareholder
engagements onenvironmental, social, and governance issues from 1999
to 2009. Their findings suggest that CSR activismcreates shareholder
value, consistent but in a different scale compared withtraditional
shareholder activism or hedge fund activism.
The winning paper, “Active Ownership,” was previously presented as a
working papertitled, “Activism on Corporate Social Responsibility,” at
theInquire Europe & Inquire UK 2012 Spring Seminarand Financial
Management Association 2012 European Conference. The research shows
that the average one-yearabnormal return (also known as the excess or
“alpha” return) after initialengagement is 1.8 percent—just in-between
the excess return of 4.4 percent for successfulCSR investor
engagements with U.S. companies, and zero for unsuccessful ones.
Thepositive returns documented were most pronounced for engagements
on the themesof corporate governance and climate change. Firms with
more reputational concerns and higher capacity to implementCSR changes
were found more likely to be targeted by CSR activists, and more
successful in achieving the engagement objectives. Targeted firms
experienced improvements inoperating performance, profitability,
efficiency, and governance indices aftersuccessful engagements. The
paper’sfindings provide new evidence on the value of shareholder
activism on CSRissues.
Dozensof academic studies were submitted over the summer 2012 to be
considered forthe Moskowitz Prize. Lloyd Kurtz,lecturer at the
Berkeley-Haas Center for Responsible Business, Moskowitz Prize
administrator, and chief investment officer at Nelson Capital Management,
said: “We had a very competitive year in2012, with nine judges
reviewing over 40 studies in detail, so the winning teamcan take
credit for a very strong showing, and a very strong research effort.”
TheMoskowitz Prize encourages and recognizes outstanding academic
research onmatters germane to the field of responsible investing. The
$5,000 Moskowitz Prize is named forMilton Moskowitz, one of the first
investigators to publish comparisons of thefinancial performance of
screened and unscreened portfolios.
Sinceits inception in 1996, the Moskowitz Prize has been awarded
annually at the SRIConference, the largest and longest running
conference serving investors andinvestment professionals in the
sustainable, responsible, impact (SRI)investment industry in North
America. The SRI Conference is produced by First Affirmative Financial
Network,and the Moskowitz Prize is managed by the Berkeley-Haas
Center for ResponsibleBusiness. More information about theprize is
available at: http://responsiblebusiness.haas.berkeley.edu/programs/moskowitzresearchprogram.html.
The 2012 Moskowitz Prize sponsorsinclude CalvertGroup, First AffirmativeFinancial Network, Nelson CapitalManagement, Rockefeller and Co., Neuberger Berman, and Trillium Asset Management.
About theCenter for Responsible Business at The Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley
TheCenter for Responsible Business (
http://responsiblebusiness.haas.berkeley.edu) isan “action tank” that builds on the Haas School of Business’ (
http://www.haas.berkeley.edu)
culture of innovation and UC Berkeley’s tradition to run–not
walk–towardssocial progress. Building upon nearly adecade of
research, teaching and industry engagement, the Center forResponsible
Business brings together students, company leaders, and
forward-thinking faculty to redefine good business for a sustainable
future.
About The SRI Conference
TheSRI Conference (http://www.SRIconference.com) is the premier
forum forinvestors and investment professionals engaged in the
sustainable, responsible,impact (SRI) investment industry.
About First AffirmativeFinancial Network
FirstAffirmative Financial Network, LLC (http://www.firstaffirmative.com)
isan independent Registered Investment Advisor (SEC File #801-56587)
offeringinvestment consulting and asset management services through a
nationwidenetwork of investment professionals who specialize in
serving sociallyconscious investors. First Affirmativeproduces The
SRI Conference (http://www.SRIconference.com).
Media Contacts
Member of the FSinsight Editorial Board Lloyd Kurtz,
lecturer of social investing at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, is
the program administrator for the Moskowitz Prize, which is awarded by
the Center
for Responsible Business every year since
1996. Lloyd is also the initiator of sristudies.org, a highly
informative online annotated bibliography of studies of socially
responsible investing which is now (also) being hosted by
FSinsight.