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Corporate Social Responsibility
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9.27.2005 ET
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New Study Wins Prize: Stock Market May Put Higher Value on Environmentally-Responsible Companies
Awards 2005 Moskowitz Prize for Socially Responsible Investing
(CSRwire) BERKELEY, Calif.- The 2005 Moskowitz Prize for Socially Responsible
Investing has been awarded to a new study which claims that the stock
market could provide a higher value to companies rated above-average on
environmental issues.
The Prize is awarded by the Center for Responsible Business Center at the
Haas School of Business, in cooperation with the Social Investment Forum,
which promotes the concept, practice and growth of socially responsible
investing.
The study - entitled "The Economic Value of Corporate Eco-Efficiency" -
found that "company managers do not face a tradeoff between eco-efficiency
and financial performance, and that investors can use environmental
information for investment decisions." The study examined a long-running
debate about environmental versus financial performance by focusing on the
concept of eco-efficiency, a measure developed by Innovest Strategic Value
Advisors. Full text of the 2005 winning paper is available online at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=675628.
"This study is important to help investors, managers, and policy-makers to
understand the crucial question the extent to which
environmentally-friendly technologies and products are profitable," said
David Levine, professor of economics at the Haas School of Business and
one of the Moskowitz Prize judges. "The results are clear: the stock
market provides a higher value to companies that Innovest rates as
above-average on environmental issues," added Levine.
Lloyd Kurtz, who is known as the "guiding spirit" behind the Moskowitz
Prize and is a senior portfolio manager at Nelson Capital Management, an
investment advisory affiliate of Wells Fargo, added: "We are delighted to
recognize the strong work of this team from The Netherlands. With this
award, two of the co-authors of this study - Rob Bauer and Kees Koedijk -
become the first two-time winners of the Moskowitz Prize in its 10-year
history. This underscores the growing importance and influence of
European researchers in the ongoing debate about SRI."
Nadja Guenster, Jeroen Derwall, Rob Bauer, and Kees Koedijk authored the
study. Guenster, Derwall, and Koedijk - are affiliated with the Rotterdam
School of Management at Erasmus University, and Bauer is affiliated with
Limburg Institute of Financial Economics at Maastricht University.
Co-authors Bauer and Koedijk are also past winners of the Prize, for the
2002 paper "International Evidence on Ethical Mutual Fund Performance and
Investment Style".
An honorable mention was awarded to Dr. Meir Statman for his study
"Socially Responsible Indexes: Composition, performance, and tracking
errors", which is forthcoming in the Journal of Portfolio
Management. Dr. Statman, of the Leavey School of Business at Santa
Clara University, is a well-recognized financial researcher specializing
in Behavioral Finance. He has another SRI article, "The Religions of
Social Responsibility", headlining the latest issue of The Journal of
Investing.
ABOUT THE MOSKOWITZ PRIZE
Hosted by the Haas School's Center for Responsible Business, the annual
Moskowitz Prize was launched in 1996 by the Social Investment Forum, the
national trade association for the socially and environmentally
responsible investing (SRI) industry, to recognize the best quantitative
study of socially responsible investing.
The prize is named for Milton Moskowitz, one of the first investigators to
publish comparisons of the financial performance of screened and unscreened
portfolios. His distinguished works include "The 100 Best Companies to Work
for in America," an annual list published in Fortune magazine, and "The
Global Marketplace: 102 of the Most Influential Companies Outside
America."
The winner of the 2005 Prize was announced yesterday at the SRI in the
Rockies conference in Snowbird, Utah. A $2,500 prize is awarded to the
author or authors of the study judged to be most outstanding. The judges
for the 2005 Prize were:
Brian R. Bruce, director, Global Investments,
PanAgora; Dan diBartolomeo, president of Northfield Information
Services, Inc.;
David Levine, professor, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley;
Kellie A. McElhaney, executive director, Center for Responsible
Business, Haas School of Business; and
Pietra Rivoli, associate professor, McDonough School of Business,
Georgetown University.
Lloyd Kurtz, of Nelson Capital Management, has provided oversight since
the prize's inception in 1996.
The sponsors of the Moskowitz Prize are: Calvert; First Affirmative
Financial Network; KLD Research & Analytics, Inc.; Nelson Capital
Management; Rockefeller & Co.; and Trillium Asset Management.
ABOUT THE CENTER FOR RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS
Founded in 2003, the vision of the Center for Responsible Business is to
create a more sustainable, ethical, and socially responsible society by
establishing the Haas School of Business of Business at the University of
California, Berkeley as the preeminent educational institution for
research, teaching, experiential learning, and community outreach in areas
of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Website: http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/responsiblebusiness.
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Note to editors: Lloyd Kurtz, of Nelson Capital Management, first
conceived this award in 1996 and is known in the industry as the "guiding
spirit" behind the Moskowitz Prize. He is available for interviews to
discuss:
The history, evolution and importance of the prize
Advances and trends in socially responsible investing
To arrange an interview with Lloyd Kurtz, please contact Stephanie Rico,
Wells Fargo, at 415/396-5804.
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