Please note this course description is from Spring 2016 and is for reference only.
COURSE NUMBER: MBA 292I.1
This course is cross-listed with the Evening-Weekend
MBA Program
This is an Applied Innovation elective and has a co-requisite core
course: MBA200P Problem-Finding, Problem Solving. If you enroll and have not
completed MBA200P, PFPS will be added to your schedule after the Add/Drop
period.
COURSE TITLE: Social Investing - Challenges and Opportunities
in Asset Management
UNITS OF CREDIT: 1.0
INSTRUCTOR: Lloyd Kurtz
E-MAIL ADDRESS: lloydkurtz@berkeley.edu
CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION: bCourses
MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: TBD
PREREQUISITE(S): Asset Management (Marshall)
CLASS FORMAT:
The course will cover key topics in modern social and sustainable 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: Group project, final paper, class
participation.
ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES: The purpose of
this course is to provide an overview of the theory and practice of modern
social investing in an asset management context, and to introduce you to recent
research in the field. With new impetus from the United Nations Principles for
Responsible Investment, the use of ESG (environmental, social, and governance)
criteria is becoming increasingly prevalent throughout the world.
Over the past decade, empirical work has shown surprising and sometimes
counter-intuitive relationships between ESG factors and financial outcomes.
This course will review social and sustainable
investment techniques in detail, along with related academic studies, and
encourage you to do your own analysis and develop your own views on the field
of social investment..
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
Lloyd Kurtz is Chief Investment Officer at Nelson Capital Management. 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, acts as faculty advisor to the Haas Socially Responsible
Investment Fund, and serves on the editorial board of FSinsight (fsinsight.org). His recent
research includes a Fall 2011 article on social investment universe performance
in the Journal of Investing and a chapter on stakeholder management for the
textbook *Socially Responsible Finance and
Investing* (Wiley). He also wrote the 2013 book "Looking Forward, Looking
Back: A Hitchhiker's Guide to Research on Social and Sustainable
Investment" for Tilburg University, and a chapter on social investment for
the 2008 Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility. He holds Bachelors
degrees in English and Psychology from Vassar College and an MBA from Babson
College, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.