European Centre for Alternative Finance

Looking forward to co-organizing the next edition! Please submit your work. Utrecht University School of Economics Finance @ Utrecht University School of Economics Entrepreneurship @ Utrecht University School of Economics

𝗕𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗣𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 🤩 Our colleagues Kayshani Gibbon, Jeroen Derwall, Dirk Gerritsen, and Kees Koedijk, were awarded the BNP Paribas Asset Management Best Research Paper Award at the GRASFI - Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment (GRASFI Conference) for their paper titled “Renaming with Purpose: Investor Response and Fund Manager Behaviour After Fund ESG-Renaming”. 🌳 The authors investigated the growing trend of mutual funds adopting ESG-related appellations in their names, to assess whether such changes are cosmetic or purposeful. The study analysed a global sample of 740 ESG-related name changes between 2016 and 2022. Using a staggered difference-in-differences method, the authors explored the impact of renaming on key metrics such as fund flows, portfolio-level ESG performance, and fees. 🧐 The results indicate mixed evidence. While fund managers did improve their portfolios’ ESG performance post-renaming, by reducing exposure to controversial sectors, lowering carbon intensity, and mitigating ESG risks, there was little to no impact on management fees and investors’ flow response. These results suggest that ESG renaming is more than a superficial marketing strategy, reflecting genuine efforts by fund managers to align with ESG criteria. 👏 We congratulate our colleagues on their award!  The paper is available from:  https://lnkd.in/d6Nca7jm #uufinance #usefinance #FinanceResearch #ResearchAward #MutualFunds #ESG Utrecht University School of Economics

𝗗𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗕𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗙𝘂𝗲𝗹 𝗕𝘂𝗯𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀? 📈 Cryptocurrencies are often subject to large price movements and speculation, with market bubbles that dominate historical counterparts in both scale and duration, making them remarkable in economic research. Our colleague YiLong Xu (together with Marco Lambrecht and Andis Sofianos) explores how the mining process influences bubble formation in his new publication “Does mining fuel bubbles? An experimental study on cryptocurrency markets”. 🔬 To explore the impact of the Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism, known as mining, on Bitcoin pricing, the study employed a controlled laboratory experiment. The experiment was structured to isolate the effects of mining on prices, which allows for a detailed analysis of changes between prices and fundamental values. The effect of mining centralization is also tested by centralizing mining capacity among a small group of individuals. Additionally, order book data was inspected to understand the role of miners in the formation of bubbles. 💡 The experiment revealed that mining is a significant factor in the formation of price bubbles in cryptocurrencies sharing a similar design as Bitcoin. The centralization of the mining capacity among a small group of participants escalated the extent and the timing of overpricing. The order book data confirmed that miners play a crucial role in bubble formation. In their subsequent study, the researchers demonstrate that both the costs associated with mining and the decisions made by miners, combined with a sluggish rate of supply, are key contributors to bubble formation. The results prove that inconsistent pricing is an inherent feature of cryptocurrencies based on the mining protocol, therefore limiting their potential as a medium of exchange. 🤩 Yilong was recently interviewed about his study and research by our colleagues from Utrecht University School of Economics. You can find the interview here: https://lnkd.in/esR8mw_i The study is published in Management Science here: https://lnkd.in/edQ-8q34. #FinanceResearch #Cryptocurrencies #Bitcoin #MarketBubbles #Mining

𝗥𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗱 📊 On April 23, we welcomed Simon Trimborn from University of Amsterdam in our research seminar, who presented his study “Reddit users unleashed – understanding user behaviour and their impact on meme stocks”. This research is joint work with Inez Zwetsloot (University of Amsterdam). 🧐 The authors examined the impact of the behaviour of users on the Reddit forum Wallstreetbets on the stock price of GameStop (GME). GameStop is seen as a so-called meme stock, which are stocks targeted by internet crowd. The authors develop a network model which depicts the relation between Wallstreetbets users via their postings and replies. Using changepoint detection, the authors identify changes in users’ posting behaviour on the social network. 🚀 The results indicate that changes in Reddit users’ behaviour play a significant role in explaining market movements, including return dynamics and jump volatility. There is a significant impact of changepoints on GameStop’s integrated volatility. The behaviour of vital users’ forecasted volatility with a time lag, whereas conversely, non-vital users’ behaviour had an immediate effect. This shows that in GameStop market frenzy, changes in users’ behaviour were the main drivers, outweighing the joint activity of the Wallstreetbets users. Therefore, the authors suggest that the activity of small group of vital nodes, influencing other nodes, contributed to the activity of GME traders. 👏 We would like to thank Simon Trimborn and his co-author for their work on meme stocks and findings on users’ behaviour. #Finance #Research #usefinance #uufinance #seminar #utrechtschoolofeconomics #reddit #memestocks Utrecht University School of Economics

FINAL REMINDER *** 1 month to submission deadline: 05.02.2024 ! *** CALL FOR PAPERS   The 3rd ICAFR (International Conference on Alternative Finance Research) will be held in Austria 05-06 June 2024. The 3rd International Conference for Alternative Finance Research is a dedicated forum for alternative finance researchers and practitioners from all around the globe. It covers themes addressing crowdfunding, digital fundraising and lending, microfinance and prosocial lending, invoice trading, crypto assets and currencies, etc. The conference serves as a cross-disciplinary meeting place for scholars of information systems, economics, finance, entrepreneurship, and marketing under one roof to exchange ideas and help develop the field both theoretically and practically, while engaging in close dialogue with industry stakeholders and policy makers. *** NOTE: Top rated papers by reviewers will be invited for fast-track acceptance for publication with SAGE’s Journal of Alternative Finance *** The conference is hosted by IMC Krems University of Applied Sciences, and organized by the UiA Crowdfunding Research Center at the Handelshøyskolen ved UiA / School of Business and Law, University of Agder. The event is held in collaboration with the European Centre for Alternative Finance at Utrecht University. Submission deadline: 05.02.2024 For call for papers see: https://lnkd.in/dGyFApz9 Conference website: https://lnkd.in/d4QzU9kQ Looking forward seeing you all there,