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Department of Finance

Winning Research Paper at GRASFI Conference

Among the research papers presented at the conference, one stood out as the winning paper: "Cheap talk in corporate climate commitments: the role of active institutional ownership, signalling, materiality, and sentiment," co-authored by Julia Bingler, Mathias Kraus, Markus Leippold, and Nicolas Webersinke.

The Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment (GRASFI) recently held its fifth annual conference at the University of Zurich. Among the highlights was the winning research paper titled "Cheap talk in corporate climate commitments: the role of active institutional ownership, signalling, materiality, and sentiment," authored by Julia Bingler, Mathias Kraus, Markus Leippold, and Nicolas Webersinke.

The paper examined 'cheap talk' - the term for companies engaging in greenwashing - and its relation to stewardship, public support for climate-related financial disclosures, and material climate exposure. Analyzing 14,584 annual reports of MSCI World index companies from 2010 to 2020, the study found that active institutional ownership and downside risk-focused disclosures reduced greenwashing, while public support for climate disclosures increased it.

GRASFI recognized the research's significance in advancing sustainable finance and investment knowledge, providing valuable insights for investors and stakeholders to identify and address greenwashing practices.