COURSE NUMBER:
MBA292I.1B
This course
is dual-listed with the Evening-Weekend MBA Program
COURSE TITLE: Socially
Responsible Investing - Challenges and Opportunities in Asset Management
UNITS OF CREDIT:
1.0
INSTRUCTOR: Lloyd
Kurtz
E-MAIL ADDRESS: lloydkurtz@berkeley.edu
MEETING DAY(S)/TIME:
Tuesdays, 4/3, 4/17, 4/24, 5/1 and 5/8. 6 pm to 9:30 pm.
PREREQUISITE(S): Asset
Management (MBA237.2)
CLASS FORMAT:
The course will cover key topics in modern responsible investment practice,
including impact of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors on:
portfolio risk assessment, firm cost of capital, valuation, implications for
fundamental analysis, and assessment of impact.
REQUIRED READINGS: A
packet of readings will be provided prior to the first class session.
Background material may be found on the following websites:
https://responsiblebusiness.haas.berkeley.edu/programs/moskowitzresearchprogram.html
http://www.unpri.org
BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: Risk
project, final paper, class participation.
ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND
OBJECTIVES:
This class examines the implications of responsible investment and ESG
(environmental, social and governance) policies for asset owners and asset
managers, focusing particularly on the risk dimension. It is an axiom of
financial theory that constraints diminish portfolio efficiency, and
responsible investment policies certainly impose constraints (e.g.,
avoidance of tobacco or fossil fuel stocks). But some academics,
consultants, and investment managers argue that responsible investment policies
and ESG integration can also confer benefits. In recent years major
advances have been made in the field, as researchers and commercial providers
of risk management tools have introduced new techniques and quantified the costs
and benefits of old ones.
The
course is a combination of lecture, guest lecture, and discussion. We will
review some of the theory underlying modern thinking about risk, from
Markowitz’s concept of ‘uncertainty’, to the use of modern risk models to managing
tracking error against a benchmark. We will also explore emerging views
on risk, particularly the emerging institutional practice of integrating ESG
factors into risk assessment.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
Lloyd Kurtz is a senior portfolio manager and head of the Wells Fargo Social
Impact Investing Team. He has been affiliated with the Haas Center for
Responsible Business since 2005, where he oversees the Center's annual
Moskowitz Prize for the best quantitative study of social investing, and serves
on the Advisory Committee for the Haas Socially Responsible Investment
Fund.
Lloyd
did much of the initial quantitative work on the development of the Domini
Social Index, the first broad-based social investment benchmark in the U.S.,
and wrote the chapter introducing it in The Social Investment Almanac. His paper on the
long-term performance of this index, a collaboration with Dan DiBartolomeo,
appeared in the Fall 2011 Journal of Investing.
His recent research focuses on the relationship between ESG performance and the
competitiveness of firms. He has published numerous reviews of the social
investment literature over the years, most recently the book Looking Forward,
Looking Back (2013) for Tilburg University.
He
holds Bachelors degrees in English and Psychology from Vassar College and an
MBA from Babson College, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.