Research

Publications

Why Are Firms With More Managerial Ownership Worth Less?

with Rüdiger Fahlenbrach, René M. Stulz, and Jérôme Taillard

Journal of Financial Economics

Abstract: Using more than 50,000 firm-years from 1988 to 2015, we show that the empirical relation between a firm’s Tobin’s q and managerial ownership is systematically negative. When we restrict our sample to larger firms as in the prior literature, our findings are consistent with the literature, showing that there is an increasing and concave relation between q and managerial ownership. We show that these seemingly contradictory results are explained by cumulative past performance and liquidity. Better performing firms have more liquid equity, which enables insiders to more easily sell shares after the IPO, and they also have a higher Tobin’s q.

Working papers

Is History Repeating Itself? The (Un)Predictable Past of ESG Ratings

with Florian Berg and Zacharias Sautner

Revise and Resubmit at the Journal of Finance

Abstract: The explosion in ESG research has led to a strong reliance on ESG rating providers. We document widespread changes to the historical ratings of a key rating provider, Refinitiv ESG (formerly ASSET4). Depending on whether the original or rewritten data are used, ESG-based classifications of firms into ESG quantiles and tests that relate ESG scores to returns change. While there is a positive link between ESG scores and firms’ stock market performance in the rewritten data, we fail to observe such a relationship in the initial data. The ESG data rewriting is an ongoing rather than a one-off phenomenon.

Why Do U.S. CEOs Pledge Their Own Company's Stock?

solo-authored

(March 2019)

Abstract: This paper presents the first large-scale empirical analysis of the pledging phenomenon among U.S. CEOs. Between 2007 and 2016, 7.6% of publicly listed U.S. firms disclosed that their CEOs had pledged company stock as collateral for a loan. On average, CEOs pledge 38% of their shares. The mean loan value is an economically sizeable $65 million. CEOs use the funds to either double down (6.0%), hedge their ownership (3.5%), or to obtain liquidity while maintaining ownership (90.5%). My event study results reveal that stock market participants view pledging as value-enhancing, but perceive significant pledging as value-destroying. Similarly, I find no evidence of its negative shareholder value consequences, except for CEOs who engage in significant pledging.

Do Debt Investors Care About ESG Ratings?

with Michael Ryf, Larissa Schäfer and Sascha Steffen

(October 2021)

Abstract: A methodology change of an ESG rating provider introduces plausibly exogenous variation in firms’ ESG ratings, which allows us to study their effect on the cost of debt of U.S. firms. We find that loans spreads of downgraded ESG-rated firms in the secondary corporate loan market increase by about 10% compared to non-downgraded ESG-rated firms and compared to before the rating downgrade. ESG rating downgrades do not increase fundamental default risk of the firm but the premium charged by lenders above the spread for default risk. We find that the effect is stronger for firms that are more financially constrained and firms that are more exposed to ESG and, particularly, climate risk concerns. Importantly, we find that also loan spreads of private (unrated) firms in industries especially affected by ESG rating downgrades increased after the methodology change.

ESG Ratings are Worse Than You Think

(December 2022)

with Sophie-Dorothee Rotermund

Abstract: In 2020, ESG integration surpassed exclusionary screening-based strategies and became the largest sustainable investment strategy globally. Despite their numerous flaws, ESG ratings continue to shape the investment process. We therefore provide an overview of the most common issues that researchers and practitioners should be aware of when working with ESG ratings. The issues we identify pertain to ISS ESG, MSCI ESG, Sustainalytics ESG, S&P ESG, and Refinitiv ESG ratings, among others.

Research seminars and presentations

• 2024: University of St. Gallen, seminar (scheduled)
• 2024: University of Liverpool, seminar (scheduled)
• 2024: European Finance Association (EFA) 2024, session chair
• 2024: CFA ESG Conference Zurich, conference
• 2024: CFA Society Slovakia: ESG Investment Summit, conference
• 2023: University of Virginia, Darden School of Business, seminar
• 2023: Cornell University, SC Johnson College of Business, seminar
• 2023: Manchester University, seminar
• 2023: Professional Risk Managers’ International Association (PRMIA) Thought Leadership Webinar titled “ESG ratings are worse than you think!”
• 2023: Slovak University of Technology (STU), workshop
• 2023: Technical University of Kosice (TUKE), seminar
• 2023: University of Hong Kong, seminar
• 2023: ESG Investment Summit by the CFA Society Slovakia, keynote
• 2023: American Finance Association (AFA), conference
• 2022: Copenhagen Business School (CBS), seminar
• 2022: European Commission (GD FISMA), multiple invited talks
• 2022: 4^th NTHU Symposium on Sustainable Finance and Economics, virtual
• 2022: Tilburg University, seminar
• 2022: 3^rd Endless Summer Conference on Financial Intermediation and Corporate Finance, conference
• 2022: Workshop “Financial Regulation – Going Green” at Goethe University, workshop
• 2022: 2^nd NTHU Symposium on Sustainable Finance and Economics, virtual
• 2022: Cornell University ESG Investing Research Conference, conference*
• 2022: European Financial Management Association (EFMA), conference
• 2022: National Bank of Slovakia (NBS), seminar
• 2022: SFS Cavalcade North America 2022, conference*
• 2022: CFA Society Slovakia: ESG Investment Summit, conference
• 2022: Corporate Governance Symposium 2022 by Weinberg Center & ECGI, conference
• 2021: HEC Paris, S&O Institute Lunch Seminar, seminar
• 2021: Humboldt University of Berlin, seminar
• 2021: University of Bern, seminar
• 2021: 27^th Annual Meeting of the German Finance Association (DGF), conference
• 2021: UN PRI Academic Network Week 2021, conference
• 2021: Frankfurt School of Finance & Management Conference on ESG Ratings, conference
• 2021: 13^th Annual Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability (ARCS) Research Conference, conference*
• 2021: Professional Risk Managers’ International Association (PRMIA) Thought Leadership Webinar, webinar
• 2021: Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research (ABFER) Annual Conference, conference
• 2021: University of Oxford - Saïd Business School, seminar
• 2021: University of St. Gallen, seminar
• 2021: Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, webinar
• 2020: University of Southampton, seminar
• 2020: Frankfurt School of Finance & Management Brown Bag Series, seminar
• 2020: Junior European Finance Seminar, seminar
• 2020: Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, seminar
• 2020: INSEAD, seminar
• 2020: Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, seminar
• 2020: American Finance Association (AFA) PhD Student Poster Session, poster session
• 2019: SFI Academic Job Market Workshop, workshop
• 2019: European Finance Association (EFA), conference*
• 2019: LSE PhD Seminar, seminar
• 2019: SFI Research Days, conference
• 2019: Drexel Corporate Governance Conference, conference*
• 2019: Western Finance Association (WFA), conference
• 2019: EPFL-UNIL Brown Bag Series, seminar

* by a co-author

Conference Discussions

• 2024: European Winter Finance Summit (EWFS), Davos, Switzerland

• 2023: Annual Research Conference at the Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), Amsterdam, Netherlands

• 2023: CEPR 9^th IWH-FIN-FIRE Workshop, Halle, Germany

• 2023: European Finance Association (EFA), Amsterdam, Netherlands

• 2023: University of Luxembourg, 2^nd Conference in Sustainable Finance, Luxembourg

• 2023: Workshop on “Shareholder Voting, Proxy Voting Guidelines, and Proxy VotingAdvisors”, Zurich, Switzerland

• 2022: European Financial Management Association (EFMA), Rome, Italy

• 2022: Financial Intermediation Research Society (FIRS), Budapest, Hungary

• 2022: Global Corporate Governance Colloquium (GCGC), Oxford, United Kingdom

• 2022: European Winter Finance Summit (EWFS), Zermatt, Switzerland

• 2022: American Finance Association (AFA) Annual Meeting, virtual

• 2021: 27^th Annual Meeting of the German Finance Association (DGF) 2021, Innsbruck, Austria

• 2021: SAFE Policy Workshop on Green Finance, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

• 2021: Junior European Finance (JEF) Seminar on Banking and Impact Investing, virtual

• 2021: China International Conference in Finance (CICF), virtual

• 2021: 11^th Biennial Conference of the Czech Economic Society (CES), virtual

• 2021: Junior European Finance (JEF) Seminar, virtual

• 2020: Swiss Finance Institute (SFI) Research Days, virtual

Awards

Teaching awards

• 2019: Best teaching assistant of the Master in Financial Engineering (MFE) section - Graduating MFE class of 2019

• 2018: College of Management of Technology (CDM) award for outstanding teaching

Research grants and awards

• 2022: Winner of the Best Paper Award at the 2022 Cornell University ESG Investing Research Conference, USD 10,000

• 2022: Best Paper Award at the ECGI 2022 Corporate Governance Symposium: John L. Weinberg/IRRCi Research Award from the Weinberg Center at the University of Delaware, USD 10,000

• 2021: Lamfalussy Fellowship, European Central Bank, EUR 10,000

• 2015: Swiss Finance Institute PhD Program Scholarship, Léman campus, CHF 30,000

Other awards

• 2022: Rising Star Award from the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN)
• 2022: Selected into the list "Women of the Future: 50 Rising Stars in ESG"
   

Education

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

• Swiss Finance Institute (SFI) PhD Program in Finance
• Thesis advisor: Prof. Rüdiger Fahlenbrach
• Title: PhD in Finance (Ph.D.)

• Lausanne, Switzerland

• September 2015 - July 2020

 

London School of Economics (LSE)

• Visiting Scholar, Faculty sponsor: Prof. Dirk Jenter
• London, United Kingdom
• May 2019 - July 2019

 

Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU)

• Title: Master of Science in Business Administration (M.Sc.)
• Munich, Germany
• October 2012 - September 2015

 

HEC Lausanne, University of Lausanne (UNIL)

• Exchange student (Master)
• Lausanne, Switzerland

• September 2013 - February 2014

 

Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU)

• Title: Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (B.Sc.)
• Munich, Germany
• October 2009 - September 2012

 

 

Certifications

Professional certifications

• Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA) (Charterholder since 2019)
• Professional Risk Manager (PRM™) (Charterholder since 2013)
• CFA Institute Certificate in ESG Investing (2022)
• Eurex Trading Certificate (2013)

Teaching

ESG Investing and Sustainable Finance

• University of Bern, since 2022, English
• Level: Bachelor
• Role: Course lecturer

Risk Management

• University of Bern, since 2022, English
• Level: Master
• Course textbook: Risk Management and Financial Institutions by John C. Hull
• Role: Course lecturer

Data Analytics and Machine Learning in Finance

• Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, since 2021, English
• Level: Master
• Course textbook: Introduction to Machine Learning with Python: A Guide for Data Scientists by Andreas C. Müller und Sarah Guido
• Role: Course lecturer

Managerial Finance

• EPFL, 2018 - 2020, English

• Level: EMBA

• Course textbook: Corporate Finance by Jonathan B. Berk and Peter DeMarzo

• Role: Teaching assistant

Introduction to Finance

• EPFL, 2016 - 2020, English

• Level: Master

• Course textbook: Corporate Finance by Jonathan B. Berk and Peter DeMarzo

• Role: Teaching assistant

Grundlagen der Betriebswirtschaftslehre (Fundamentals of Business Administration)

• LMU, 2011-2012, German

• Level: Bachelor

• Course textbook: Einführung in die Betriebswirtschaftslehre by Werner Neus

• Role: Teaching assistant

Experience

2022-present: Assistant Professor of Finance

• Full-time, Tenure-track, Finance Department
• University of Bern
• Bern, Switzerland

 

2020-2022: Assistant Professor of Finance

• Full-time, Tenure-track, Finance Department
• Frankfurt School of Finance & Management
• Frankfurt am Main, Germany

 

2022-present: CFA Society Slovakia

• Volunteering, Board of Directors: Elected Director
• Bratislava, Slovakia
   

2014: UBS Investment Bank

• Full-time, Equity Derivatives Department
• Zurich, Switzerland
   

2013: MEAG MUNICH ERGO Asset Management

• Part-time, Risk Controlling and Limit Management Department
• Munich, Germany
   

References

Professor Rüdiger Fahlenbrach

• Professor of Finance at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Senior Chair at the Swiss Finance Institute (SFI)
• Email: ruediger.fahlenbrach[at]epfl.ch

 

Professor Dirk Jenter

• Professor of Finance
• London School of Economics
• Email: D.Jenter[at]lse.ac.uk

 

Professor René M. Stulz

• Professor of Finance

• Everett D. Reese Chair of Banking and Monetary Economics and the Director of the Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics at The Ohio State University

• Email: stulz.1[at]osu.edu

 

Contact

Address

• University of Bern
• Institute of Financial Management
• Engehaldenstrasse 4
• 3012 Bern
• Switzerland

 

E-Mail

• kornelia.fabisik@unibe.ch

 

LinkedIn

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/kornelia-fabisik/

 

SSRN

• https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=2595625

 

Google Scholar

• https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=M8N722YAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao