Green Investments: Does it Pay Off?
Green Investments: Does it Pay Off? - Lasse Heje Pedersen, Financial Economist, on Predicting and Understanding Financial Markets
Lasse Heje Petersen, director of the Center for Big Data in Finance has participated in a new podcast episode of "Videnskab fra Vilde Hjerner".
"Low risk, high return" is typically the formula for success for an investor. But something has shifted in the stock market: Green and sustainable investments are high on the wish list for many investors, posing new questions to economic research. Can green investments pay off? And on what parameters, if not just returns? New theories and analyses of data are needed, and this is Lasse Heje Pedersen's specialty. Overall, research in finance revolves around what determines the prices of stocks and bonds and how those prices affect the real world. Therefore, Lasse Heje Pedersen develops both theoretical mathematical models and examines empirical data from thousands of stocks and bonds worldwide to see if the theories hold water.
Currently, he is researching green investments: Do they yield higher or lower returns than "brown" ones, and do they help make the economy and society greener?
Also, listen to Lasse Heje Pedersen - a professor of finance at CBS - explain what he has done to compare such disparate entities as the effect of CO2 taxation with the effect of green investments. Thorough scrutiny that can inform political discussions both in governments and cafeteria lines.
The real world is Lasse Heje Pedersen's preferred focus; theories and mathematical models are his way of understanding and explaining it. In this episode, listeners also get a sense of what it means to write a scientific article in a state of flow. If you're still awaiting a response to an email from a researcher, it might be because they're sitting in front of the screen with tunnel vision, the economist and astrophysicist quickly agree. But right now, there's a connection to both of them - enjoy!
Listen to the podcast episode here.