Post-Modern Portfolio Theory: IRRC Research Award Available

The IRRC Institute announced a competition for research that examines the interaction of the real economy with investment theory. Two papers – one academic and one practitioner – will receive the new “IRRC Institute Research Award” along with a $10,000 award. Of course, we would like both prizes to go to CorpGov.net readers. One of many books you might want to read in preparing your paper is Corporate Valuation for Portfolio Investment: Analyzing Assets, Earnings, Cash Flow, Stock Price, Governance, and Special Situations by Robert A. G. Monks and Alexandra Reed Lajoux.

The following panel of renowned judges with broad finance and investment experience will carefully review submissions and select two winning papers:

• Mark Anson, Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer, Oak Hill Investment Management
• Robert Arnott, Chairman, Research Affiliates
• Collette Chilton, Chief Investment Officer, Williams College
• James Hawley, Professor & Director, Elfenworks Center for Fiduciary Capitalism, St. Mary’s College
• Bill Miller, Chairman, Chief Investment Officer & Portfolio Manager, Legg Mason Capital Management

Biographies of the judges are available here.

“Modern Portfolio Theory has dominated investment theory for a half century,” said Jon Lukomnik, executive director of the IRRC Institute and coordinator for the new award. “That has increased the focus on security selection, portfolio construction, and other financial issues rather than attention on the real economy and investing.” Lukomnik continued:

Simultaneously, the growing importance of the private sector relative to the public sector in the real economy has increased scrutiny of private sector behavior and economic activity, leading to the rise of a ‘responsible investing’ movement. Yet, a significant focus of that scrutiny is normative. That is, the private sector entity ‘should’ act in a certain manner with minimal attention on portfolio and investment theory. Thus, the new IRRC Institute Research Award seeks to encourage new research that integrates analysis of private sector behavior with investment theory. We hope the resulting research will serve as a valuable tool for investors, policymakers, academia, and other stakeholders.

Award submissions are due online by Friday, November 18, 2011, and winners will be notified and announced by February 2012. Submissions may be an original work created specifically for the IRRC Research Award, or relevant unpublished papers, or papers that have been published after January 1, 2011. Winning papers will be published by the IRRC Institute and submitted to the Social Science Research Network for publication. The IRRC Institute will distribute the winning papers to more than 5,000 individuals interested in the organization’s research.

More information regarding the award process, submission guidelines and calendar is here, along with the award submission form and a Fact Sheet and Frequently Asked Questions.

The IRRC Institute is a not-for-profit organization headquartered in New York, NY that provides thought leadership at the intersection of corporate responsibility and the informational needs of investors.