Best Paper Award at 5th CEFGroup Sustainable Finance and Reporting Symposium

We are pleased to announce that Lars Hornuf (Chair of Finance and Financial Technology, TU Dresden), together with his co-authors Christoph Merkle (Aarhus University, Danish Finance Institute) and Stefan Zeisberger (Radboud University, University of Zurich), has received the INFINZ Best Paper in Sustainable Investing Award at the 5th CEFGroup Sustainable Finance and Reporting Symposium. The event, hosted by the Climate and Energy Finance Group of the University of Otago, New Zealand, took place on November 28-29, 2024, in Queenstown.

Their working paper, titled “Nudging Investors towards Sustainability: A Field Experiment with a Robo-Advisor”, investigates sustainability preferences of investors. By conducting a field experiment with robo-advisor clients, the researchers find that investors are more likely to choose sustainable over conventional investments if the sustainable investment option is set as the default. While 36% choose the sustainable investment option if it is set as the default, only 23% opt for the sustainable option given the conventional investment is set as the default. Conventional investors typically expected superior performance from conventional investments, while sustainable investors were optimistic about the outperformance of their sustainable investments. The results of the study suggest that, while sustainability preferences play a role, default options and the anticipated risk-adjusted returns primarily drive investment choices. Investors are not necessarily willing to sacrifice substantial financial gains for sustainability in a real-world setting.

The best-paper award is sponsored by INFINZ. We extend our congratulations to Professor Hornuf and his co-authors for this outstanding achievement!