CfP – IWFSAS 2019: “Financial Architecture and Stability: What Role for Sustainable Finance?

The fourth annual International Workshop on Financial System Architecture and Stability (IWFSAS) will be hosted by the Gustavson School of Business and the Centre for Social and Sustainable Innovation (CSSI), in collaboration with the Centre for Banking Research (CBR) at Cass Business School, the Alberta School of Business at the University of Alberta and the Department of Economics at the University of Victoria.

The workshop will take place at the University of Victoria (British Columbia, Canada) from 29th-30th August 2019 (link to website). Please find the Call for Papers below.

Call for Papers

Sustainability is today recognized as a vital theme in economic development and has dominated the global agenda not just at the governmental level, for instance with the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, but also increasingly at the business and corporate levels. The financial system has a key role to play in achieving the desired goals of sustainable and inclusive growth. It is also faced with more challenges (and opportunities), including new regulatory pressures, increasing investors demand for green, environmental and socially responsible financial instruments, more relevant risk management and insurance products, in addition to massive capital needs by corporations and governments as they embark on a transition to low carbon economies. As mentioned in the 2018 final report of the EU High Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance, “reaching our Paris agreement goals requires no less than a transformation of the entire financial system, its culture, and its incentives.”

While a wealth of academic research has been dedicated to sustainability, its importance in the finance field is still debated and the theme of “sustainable finance” has only recently been featured in prominent finance conferences. There is still no universally accepted definition of “sustainable finance”. The Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance appointed in 2018 by the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change and the Minister of Finance in Canada, views sustainable finance as “capital flows (as reflected in lending and investment), risk management (such as insurance and risk assessment) and financial processes (including disclosure, valuation and oversight) that assimilate environmental and social factors as a means of promoting sustainable economic growth and the long-term stability of the financial system.”

Many questions related to these topics remain open for debate. For example, in the investment field, should environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues and their assessment be viewed as part of the fiduciary duties of asset managers? What impact does this have on the practice of asset allocation and risk diversification? Does divestment from fossil fuel companies make sense from an economic and financial perspective? Likewise, in the field of corporate finance, we need more research to answer questions such as: what is the impact of climate policies and disclosure requirements on firms’ earnings and valuation? How do managers reconcile shareholders wealth maximization and potentially conflicting demands by other stakeholders, including other shareholders who value environmental and social impact? Are good ESG policies beneficial for the long-term performance of companies or are there tradeoffs? Similarly, in the field of financial institutions and markets, many questions remain unanswered. For instance, do green bonds and loans actually deliver on their emission reduction targets? Are we facing a carbon bubble in financial markets due to potential overvaluation of firms exposed to climate risks? Are banks and other financial institutions well prepared to withstand external shocks related to climate change and the potential systemic failure of unprepared firms?

We invite authors to submit high quality papers on topics related to sustainable finance as broadly defined above, including, but not limited to, such topics as:

• Asset pricing and climate risk

• Sustainable asset management and ESG integration

• Green bonds, loans and transition-linked financial products and instruments

• Impact investing, socially responsible investing and ethical investing

• Climate change and fiduciary and legal duties of institutional investors

• Ethics and trust in finance and banking

• Sustainable finance and pension fund management

• Shareholders vs stakeholders wealth maximization

• Climate-related financial disclosure and impact on firms earnings and valuation

• Sustainable finance and long-term Investments

• Climate and environmental risk management

• Fintech and sustainable finance

• Gender differences, culture and financial risk taking

• Sustainable finance in emerging markets

• Microfinance, financial inclusion and social entrepreneurship

• Sustainable finance and inequality

• Financial innovation and Sustainable Development Goals

• Sustainability in financial systems: stability and crises

We welcome both theoretical and empirical contributions on the above topics, in addition to other more general topics that relate to structure and stability of the financial system.

Submit a paper to the IWFSAS 2019

Please submit your full manuscript in PDF format by May 31, 2019, through the conference via email to: iwfsas2019@iwfsas.org.

Deadline for Submission: May 31, 2019 Notification of Acceptance: June 30, 2019 Early Registration Deadline: July 15, 2019 Conference dates: August 29-30, 2019

Program Co-Chairs:

Rym Ayadi (CASS Business School, City university of London),

Basma Majerbi (Gustavson School of Business & CSSI, University of Victoria),

Vikas Mehrotra (Alberta School of Business, University of Alberta)