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Stock Market Values Responsible
Companies,
Says New Prizewinning Study
GreenBiz.com
09/29/05
BERKELEY, Calif., Sept. 29, 2005 - 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 -- titled
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.
"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.
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