12.06.2024Workshop: Journal of Financial Services Research Special Issue on "Social, Sustainable, and Innovative Financial Services"

At this one-day event, attendees learned about and discussed four papers on the topic of "Social, Sustainable, and Innovative Financial Services." Experts provided constructive evaluations and feedback.

The Department of Finance recently launched an Initiative in Sustainable Finance, addressing the pressing challenges of our time. One focus area is "Financial Institutions and Sustainability" led by Steven Ongena.

"We looked at two 'green' papers (on bank environmental disclosure and bank environmental regulatory anticipation) and three 'red' papers (on multilateral development bank lending, US opportunity zones and micro-credit). Everyone was in good spirits, and lots was discussed and discovered. But we all know: the green transition will not be a walk in the park. Progress still seems slow, and incentives not always aligned. But let s stay optimistic." – Steven Ongena

Zacharias Sautner, one of the co-heads of the Initiative in Sustainable Finance and Professor of Sustainable Finance at the Department of Finance gave a keynote speech on the topic "Finance and the Fight Against Climate Change: Evidence and Future Research".

Session 1

Chair: Steven Ongena (UZH)

"Do Banks Practice what They Preach? Brown Lending and Environmental Disclosure in the Euro Area"

Leonardo Gambacorta (Bank for International Settlements, Switzerland)
Salvatore Polizzi (University of Palermo, Italy)
Alessio Reghezza (European Central Bank, Germany)
Enzo Scannella (University of Palermo, Italy)

Discussant: Duc Duy (Louis) Nguyen (Durham University, UK)

"The Impact of Government-backed Lending to Corporates: The Role of Firm Size, Age and Regional Development"

Matteo Gatti (European Investment Bank, Luxembourg),
Wouter van der Wielen (University of Antwerp, Belgium, European Investment Bank, Luxembourg)

Discussant: Laurent Weill (EM Strasbourg Business School, University of Strasbourg, France)

Keynote speech

Finance and the Fight Against Climate Change: Evidence and Future Research by Zacharias Sautner (UZH)

Session 2

Chair: Anastasia Cozarenco (Montpellier Business School, France)

"Opportunity Zones and the Importance of Banks in the Community"

Valentina Hartarska (Auburn University, USA)
Jitka Hilliard (Auburn University, USA)
Yeosong Yoon (University of Tampa, USA)

Discussant: Jean-Robert Kala Kamdjoug (ESSCA School of Management, France)

"The Effect of ‘Plus’ Services in Microfinance: A Doubly Robust Machine Learning Approach"

Valentina Hartarska (Auburn University, USA)
Kerda Varaku (Rice University, USA)
Robin Sickles (Rice University, USA)

Discussant: Annette Krauss (UZH)

The event was co-organized by the guest editors of the special issue, Renée Adams (Saïd Business School), Anastasia Cozarenco (Montpellier Business School), Steven Ongena (University of Zurich), in collaboration with Haluk Unal (Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland), managing editor of JFSR.

The workshop was sponsored by the Journal of Financial Services Research (JFSR), Montpellier Business School and its Social & Sustainable Finance Chair, and the University of Zurich, Department of Finance.