The 2019 Moskowitz Prize Winners were named at the annual SRI Conference last week. The prestigious prize is the only global award recognizing outstanding quantitative research in sustainable and responsible investing. Since its launch in 1996 by Berkeley Haas and US SIF, its winners have explored shareholder activism, socially responsible mutual funds, and social responsible investing as a catalyst to financial performance, among other topics.
The prize is awarded $5,000 by an expert panel of judges. Papers are judged on their:
- Practical significance to practitioners of sustainable and/or responsible investment
- Appropriateness and rigor of quantitative methods
- Novelty of results
The Moskowitz Prize is named for Milton Moskowitz, one of the first investigators to publish comparisons of the financial performance of screened and unscreened portfolios, including “The 100 Best Companies to Work for in America.” Milton Moskowitz passed away in 2019 at the age of 91, but his legacy of pioneering responsible investing continues through the Moskowitz Research Prize.
Congratulations to Rui Dai, Wharton Research Data Services, Hao Liang, Singapore Management University, and Lilian K. Ng, York University, the 2019 Moskowitz Prize Winners for their paper “Socially Responsible Corporate Customers,” forthcoming in the Journal of Financial Economics.
The trio of researchers who found that socially responsible corporate customers can have a strong positive impact on the social performance of firms within their supply chains.
Tapping several international databases, the researchers found evidence that corporate customers often establish supply chain relationships with firms inclined to engage in responsible social and environmental practices. Through their work, they uncovered a “multiplier effect” that has significant policy implications—that increasing one firm’s corporate social responsibility can potentially have a ripple effect across the extensive global supply chains.
2019 Moskowitz prize winners accepted the prize at the annual Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) Conference, held November 13-15 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Lloyd Kurtz, faculty co-chair of the Moskowitz Prize, said the paper stood out for its clarity, the importance of the area under study, and the care taken in its quantitative analysis.
Corporate leaders have told us for many years that supply chains are vital for corporate social performance, but this outstanding paper is the first we have seen that examines these relationships in-depth.
From the paper’s conclusion:
[I]ncreasing one firm’s CSR can potentially have a ripple effect across the extensive global supply chains… our finding of the uni-directional CSR effect from customers to suppliers and only in some subsamples of countries suggest that such effects are bounded by a firm’s relative position in the global network and its socio-cultural and institutional environment.
Judges from both academic and investment circles reviewed a total of 40 papers this year before choosing the 2019 Moskowitz prize winner. They judged papers on the practical significance to practitioners of socially responsible investing, appropriateness and rigor of quantitative methods, and novelty of results.
The prize is named for Milton Moskowitz, one of the first investigators to publish comparisons of the financial performance of screened and unscreened portfolios, including The 100 Best Companies to Work for in America. Sponsors for the prize include Calvert Group, First Affirmative Financial Network, Nelson Capital Management, Neuberger Berman, Rockefeller and Co., and Trillium Asset Management.
About the SRI Conference
The SRI Conference is the premier annual gathering of the sustainability/SRI/ESG/impact investing world. #fromEVOLUTIONtoREVOLUTION was the focus of this milestone conference, which draws an estimated 1,200 attendees. The 30th Annual SRI Conference offers participants the chance to learn from SRI experts, gain insight on policy and future trends, be among the first to know about new SRI products, and enjoy opportunities to network and do business with a diverse range of organizations and leaders at the forefront of investing for social, economic, and environmental progress. See more coverage of the conference at #SRI30.
Future Submissions
Regarding future submissions, contact Emily Pelissier. General inquiries contact Lloyd Kurtz.
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