NEWSLETTER of March 20, 2020

The following content has been added at finexpert:

UBS

ETFS GENDER EQUALITY

A long-term performance analysis reveals a clear outperformance of gender-diverse companies versus the broader market. Since 2102, the Solactive Equileap Global Gender Equality 100 Leaders Index, explicitly designed to track the leading companies from a sustainability and gender-diversity point of view, has outperformed the standard benchmark (MSCI World) by 152 basis points per annum. And on the other side, as shown by McKinsey in 2015, companies in the bottom quartile for both gender and ethnic or cultural diversity were almost 30% less likely to achieve above-average profitability. >more

Alix Partners

THE CFO AS THE CENTRIC CHALLENGER

The CFO’s role has undergone a major evolution over the last few decades. How has this profile changed? What are the upcoming challenges and requirements for the CFO and how can you find the right candidate in the market? AlixPartners shows why and how the CFO should become the centric challenger in the organization to increase enterprise value. In addition, it is pointed out how organizations can develop themselves towards this understanding. >more

Credit Suisse

CREDIT SUISSE GLOBAL INVESTMENT RETURNS YEARBOOK 2020

This report is a summary edition of the Global Investment Returns Yearbook 2020, produced in collaboration with the Credit Suisse Research Institute by Elroy Dimson, Paul Marsh and Mike Staunton. With its 120 years of financial history, the publication remains the most comprehensive of sources of historical global investment returns, providing long-?run return data and risk premium estimates for 23 national stock and bond markets. This year's edition includes a new, dedicated chapter on environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing. >more

UBS

REAL ESTATE OUTLOOK EUROPE

In 2019, the European market continued to see positive performance in occupier markets following a late fourth quarter surge in the investment markets. We expect the softening economic fundamentals to continue to weigh on demand. As interest rates are unlikely to rise this year, we do not anticipate a price correction in 2020 despite yields in most cities reaching record lows. >more

TALKING ABOUT THE WEATHER: AVAILABILITY, AFFECT AND THE DEMAND FOR GREEN INVESTMENTS

Anders Anderson, and David T. Robinson
2019
We survey investors and establish a link between adverse weather events and beliefs about future climate calamities. By matching the survey to individual registry data, we study how exposure to climate calamities drives people to make “green” choices. These individuals are more likely to say they recycle more than their neighbors, are willing to pay extra for environmentally friendly products, think green investments outperform, and are willing to pay higher fees for green mutual funds. They also trade their retirement portfolios into investments that tout environmental sustainability. >more

NETWORKING FRICTIONS IN VENTURE CAPITAL, AND THE GENDER GAP IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Sabrina Howell, and Ramana Nanda
2019
Exploiting random variation in the number of venture capitalist (VC) judges assigned to panels at Harvard Business School’s New Venture Competition (NVC) between 2000 and 2015, we find that exposure to more VC judges increases male participants’ chances of founding a VC-backed startup after HBS much more than this exposure increases female participants’ chances. A survey suggests this is in part because male participants more often proactively reach out to VC judges after the NVC. Our results suggest that networking frictions are an important reason men benefit more than women from exposure to VCs. Such frictions can help explain part of the gender gap in entrepreneurship, and also have implications for how to design networking opportunities to facilitate financing of the best (rather than just the best networked) ideas. >more