Stefano Ramelli
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Prof. Dr.
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Ramelli
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Stefano
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stefano.ramelli@unisg.ch
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071 224 7029

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  • Publication
    Low Carbon Mutual Funds
    (Oxford, 2023-04-04)
    Ceccarelli, Marco
    ;
    Ramelli, Stefano
    ;
    Wagner, Alexander F.
    Climate change poses new challenges for portfolio management. In our not-yet-low carbon world, investors face a trade-off between minimizing their exposure to climate risks and maximizing the benefits of portfolio diversification. This paper investigates how investors and financial intermediaries navigate this trade-off. After the release of Morningstar's novel carbon risk metrics in April 2018, mutual funds labeled as ``low carbon'' experienced a significant increase in investor demand, especially those with high risk-adjusted returns. Fund managers actively reduced their exposure to firms with high carbon risk scores, especially stocks with returns that correlated more with the funds' portfolios and were thus less useful for diversification. These findings shed light on whether and how climate-related information can re-orient capital flows in a low carbon direction.
    Type: journal article
    Journal: Review of Finance
    Volume: 28
    Issue: 1
    URL: https://academic.oup.com/rof/advance-article/doi/10.1093/rof/rfad015/7103324
    DOI: 10.1093/rof/rfad015
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/116264
    Scopus© Citations 5
  • Publication
    The value of corporate social responsibility: Evidence from an inflation-driven crisis of trust
    ( 2024-03-01)
    Stefano Ramelli
    ;
    Ana Mão De Ferro
    Stakeholder trust is a major driver of corporate performance, but its benefits are difficult to identify empirically. This paper provides new evidence on the role of social capital on firm value employing a sudden increase in inflation as exogenous variation in stakeholder trust. Analyzing the cross section of U.S. stock returns from 2018 through 2022, we find that in months following higher inflation rates, equity investors reward firms with stronger social capital, as proxied by their corporate social responsibility (CSR) levels. The result holds using different measures of inflation and CSR. The effect is stronger for firms headquartered in Democratic U.S. states (those most exposed to the “corporate greed” narrative of inflation) and ex-ante higher trust regions, as well as for firms with higher levels of customer awareness, customer sensitivity, and intangible capital. Analyst forecast revisions provide additional evidence that cash flow considerations drive the observed inflation-hedging property of CSR. Overall, the findings spotlight inflation as a crisis in stakeholder trust and provide new insights into the importance of social capital for firm value.
    Type: conference paper
    URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4308164
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/120404
  • Publication
    Inflation, the Corporate Greed Narrative, and the Value of Corporate Social Responsibility
    ( 2023-01-01)
    Mao-de-Ferro, Ana
    ;
    Ramelli, Stefano
    Inflation can significantly undermine companies’ relationships with their customers, employees, and other stakeholders, spawning a crisis of trust. This is particularly true in a period when many citizens accuse corporations of excessively raising prices to maximize profits. Studying the cross-sectional reactions of US stocks to inflation over the period 2018-2022, we find that in the month following a higher inflation rate, equity investors reward firms with stronger social capital, as proxied by their corporate social responsibility levels. The effect holds using different measures of inflation, including region-specific ones. The inflation-hedging property of CSR is stronger for firms headquartered in Democratic US states (those most exposed to the “corporate greed” narrative of inflation) and for firms with higher customer awareness and intangible capital. Overall, the findings spotlight inflation as a crisis in stakeholder trust and provide new insights into the importance of social capital for firm value.
    Type: conference paper
    URL: https://www.risks-forum.org/PROGRAM
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/107818
  • Publication
    Responsible Investing and Stock Allocation
    ( 2021-01-01)
    Stefano Ramelli
    ;
    Marie Brière
    We analyze the portfolio choices of approximately 913,000 active participants in employee saving plans in France. Looking at the cross-section of equity exposure, we find that the inclusion of responsible equity options in the menu of available funds is associated with a 2.1% higher equity allocation by plan participants. Compared to an average equity asset allocation of 12.1%, it represents a material increase (17% in relative terms). Difference-in-differences analyses confirm that the introduction of a responsible equity option to a saving plan is followed by an increase of 7.2% in participants' appetite for stocks, contrary to what happens with conventional equity funds.
    Type: conference paper
    URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3853256
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/117301
  • Publication
    Sustainable Investing and Political Behavior
    ( 2023-06-15)
    Florian Heeb
    ;
    Julian Kölbel
    ;
    Stefano Ramelli
    ;
    Vasileva Anna
    A first-order concern regarding sustainable finance is that it may crowd out individual support for more effective, policy-driven approaches to address societal challenges. We test the validity of this concern in a pre-registered experiment in the context of a real referendum on a climate law with a representative sample of the Swiss population (N=2,051). We find that the opportunity to invest in a climate-conscious fund does not erode individuals’ support for climate regulation. While sustainable finance resembles a placebo in the sense that participants seem to overestimate its impact, it is not a dangerous placebo that crowds out political engagement.
    Type: working paper
    URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4484166
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/117620
  • Publication
    Retail Customer Reactions to Private Equity Acquisitions *
    ( 2023-05-22)
    Vesa Pursiainen
    ;
    Tereza Tykvová
    ;
    Aktas, Nihat
    ;
    Braun, Reiner
    ;
    Bertoni, Fabio
    ;
    Cumming, Douglas
    ;
    Groh, Alexander
    ;
    Kim, Hyeik
    ;
    Lin, Tse-Chun
    ;
    Marchuk, Tatyana
    ;
    Von Meyerinck, Felix
    ;
    Nefedova, Tamara
    ;
    Paaso, Mikael
    ;
    Phalippou, Ludovic
    ;
    Ramelli, Stefano
    ;
    Schmalz, Martin
    ;
    Schneider, Christoph
    ;
    Valta, Philip
    ;
    Tereza Tykvová
    Acquisition announcements by private equity funds are associated with significant reductions in customer visits to target firm outlets, measured using aggregated mobile phone data. These reductions occur in primary but not in secondary buyouts. Customer reviews do not become more negative. Following deal completion, the customer losses are reversed. Thus, the initial decrease is unlikely to be the consequence of operational changes. The decrease in visits is smaller in areas with higher economic connectedness, income, stock market participation, and self-employment rates, and larger in altruistic, Republican-voting and individualistic regions. The decrease is also larger for outlets facing more competition.
    Type: working paper
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/117481