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Third-party funded projects

Current Projects

Project duration: 01.01.2023 - 31.12.2025

Funding organisation: Innovation Committee at the Federal Joint Committee G-BA (Innovation Fund)

Coordinator CCR: Prof. Dr. Elke Hertig, Chair of Regional Climate Change and Health (Faculty of Medicine, University of Augsburg)

Project description: Further information can be found here.

Project duration: 01.01.2024 - 31.12.2026

Funding organisation: Innovation Committee at the Federal Joint Committee G-BA (Innovation Fund)

Coordinator CCR: Prof. Dr. Elke Hertig, professorship of Regional Climate Change and Health (Faculty of Medicine, University of Augsburg)

Project description: Further information can be found here.

Project duration: 01.07.2023 - 30.06.2026

Funding institution: Bavarian State Ministry for the Environment and Consumer Protection

Coordinator CCR: Prof. Dr. Jennifer Kunz, Chair of Business Administration with a focus on Controlling (Faculty of Economics at the University of Augsburg)

Project description:

Evaluating the effectiveness of climate protection measures is becoming increasingly important. In view of the urgency of the climate crisis, many countries have initiated corresponding programs. However, there is often a lack of practical evaluation systems that provide political decision-makers with reliable information.

Against this backdrop, Bavaria has set itself the goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2040. In order to achieve this goal, a climate protection program with more than 140 measures was set up in 2022, among other things. The interdisciplinary research project BayCliMit supports the effective implementation of this package of measures by developing a sophisticated indicator system that comprehensively ensures an assessment of the direct and indirect climate impact of climate protection measures and enables dynamic monitoring. A particular focus here is on the quantification of CO2 savings. The project, which is based at the Center for Climate Resilience at the University of Augsburg, is being carried out in close cooperation with the following working groups:

 

 

Project duration: 01.08.2022 - 31.07.2025

Funding institution: Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Coordinator CCR: Prof. Dr. Marco Wilkens, Chair of Finance and Banking (Faculty of Economics at the University of Augsburg)

Project description: Further information can be found here.

Project duration: 01.05.2021 - 30.04.2024

Funding institution: Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Coordinator CCR: Prof. Dr. Harald Kunstmann, Chair of Regional Climate and Hydrology (Institute of Geography at the University of Augsburg)

Project description: Further information can be found here.

Project duration: 01.08.2023 - 31.07.2026

Funding institution: German Research Foundation

Coordinator CCR: Prof. Dr. Harald Kunstmann, Chair of Regional Climate and Hydrology (Institute of Geography at the University of Augsburg)

Project description: Further information can be found here.

Project duration: 01.07.2022 - 30.06.2025

Funding institution: Bavarian State Ministry of Health and Care

Coordinator CCR: Prof. Dr. Axel Tuma, Chair of Production & Supply Chain Management (Faculty of Economics at the University of Augsburg)

Project description: Further information can be found here.

 

 

Project duration: 01.11.2022 - 31.12.2025

Funding institution: Bavarian State Ministry of Health and Care

Coordinator CCR: Prof. Dr. Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann, Chair of Environmental Medicine (Medical Faculty of the University of Augsburg)

Project description: Further information can be found here.

Project duration: 01.01.2024 - 30.11.2025

Funding institution: Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR), Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Building (BMWSB)

Coordination CCR: Prof. Dr. Markus Keck & Dr. Sebastian Purwins, Chair of Urban Climate Resilience (Institute of Geography at the University of Augsburg)

Project description: Further information can be found here.

Project duration: 01.08.2021 - 31.07.2024
Funding institution: Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Coordinator CCR: Prof. Dr. Harald Kunstmann, Chair of Regional Climate and Hydrology (Institute of Geography at the University of Augsburg)
Project description: Further information can be found here.

Project duration: 01.04.2022 - 30.09.2026
Funding institution: German Research Foundation
Coordinator CCR: Prof. Dr. Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann, Chair of Environmental Medicine (Medical Faculty of the University of Augsburg)
Project description: Further information can be found here.

Project duration: 01.01.2022 - 31.12.2027
Funding institution: Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Coordinator CCR: Prof. Dr. Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann, Chair of Environmental Medicine (Medical Faculty of the University of Augsburg)
Project description: Further information can be found  here.

Project duration: 01.01.2021 - 31.12.2024
Funding institution: German Research Foundation
Coordinator CCR: Prof. Dr. Maria Backhouse, Chair of Environmental Sociology with a focus on Social-Ecological Transformation, Resilience Design and Climate (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Augsburg)
Project description: Further information can be found here.

Project duration: 20.09.2022 - 19.09.2025
Funding institution: Innovation Committee at the Federal Joint Committee G-BA (Innovation Fund)
Coordinator CCR: Prof. Dr. Claudia Traidl-Hoffmann, Chair of Environmental Medicine (Medical Faculty of the University of Augsburg)
Project description: Further information can be found here.

Project duration: 01.07.2021 - 28.02.2025
Funding institution: Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture
Coordinator ZfK: Prof. Dr. Markus Keck, Chair of Urban Climate Resilience (Institute of Geography at the University of Augsburg)
Project description: Further information can be found  here.

Project duration: 01.09.2022 - 28.02.2027
Funding institution: EU - Horizon Europe Framework Program in the Call Environment and Health
Coordinator CCR: Prof. Dr. Elke Hertig, Chair of Regional Climate Change and Health (Faculty of Medicine, University of Augsburg)
Project description: Further information can be found here.

Project duration: 01.01.2020- 31.07.2026
Funding organization: ACIAR, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research
Coordination CCR: Prof. Dr. Katharina Waha, Chair of Climate Resilience of Cultivated Ecosystems (Institute of Geography, University of Augsburg)
Project description: Further information can be found here.

Project duration: 3 years
Funding institution: German Research Foundation
Coordinator CCR: Prof. Dr. Sebastian Utz,  Chair of Finance with a focus on Climate Finance (Faculty of Economics at the University of Augsburg)
Project description:

This project addresses the question of whether environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings influence information asymmetry in financial markets by investigating how the bid-ask spread of a company changes after the release of the company’s ESG rating in a quasi-natural experimental setting. This project adds to the academic literature by showing causal evidence of the link between ESG ratings and company information asymmetry. It also enriches discussions among academics, regulators, and practitioners regarding which types of ESG ratings could improve the efficiency of financial markets by providing information unknown without these ESG ratings. 


While asymmetric information is a prominent pillar in modern theories of corporate finance, empirical investigations assessing the impact of ESG ratings on information asymmetry are challenging. This is because credible exogenous information is scarce, and there are relatively few natural experiments related to ESG that result in significant shifts in the information environment. Therefore, empirical research on asymmetric information in the context of ESG, and sustainable finance in general, is still in its early stages of development. In particular, the question of whether the release of third-party ESG ratings (and if yes, which quality of ESG ratings) has a causal effect on information asymmetry has not been answered empirically to date.
The unique empirical setting of the proposed project allows us to investigate the general differential effect on bid-ask spreads between companies that received an ESG rating in a release (treatment) and control companies (i.e., companies without a released ESG rating) in a difference-in-differences setting. Additional tests (1) analyze the impact of various characteristics on the magnitude of the differential effect, (2) address the potential concerns that the differential effect is not causal, and (3) study how a higher or lower level of divergence among ESG ratings from different providers impacts information asymmetry after the release of an additional ESG rating. Finally, the project applies an event study to investigate the stock market reaction of the treated companies after the ESG rating release. The target of the project is the submission of a series of papers to international highly-ranked peer-reviewed journals.     
The main implication of this project is to gain a better understanding of whether ESG ratings can mitigate frictions in capital markets. Depending on the findings, the project provides evidence for the usefulness of uniform and standardized rules for compiling ESG ratings and their role as proxies for reducing market frictions, enhancing liquidity, and increasing company values. Therefore, the results of the project are also relevant for companies since they could consider disclosing value-relevant ESG information to increase company value. 
 

Completed projects

Project duration: 01.07.2016 - 31.07.2022
Funding institution: Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Coordinator CCR: Prof. Dr. Maria Backhouse, Chair of Environmental Sociology with a focus on Social-Ecological Transformation, Resilience Design and Climate (Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences at the University of Augsburg)
Project description: Further information can be found here.

Project duration: 01.01.2023 - 15.11.2023
Funding institution: Mercator Foundation
Coordinator CCR: Prof. Dr. Sebastian Utz, Chair of Finance with a focus on Climate Finance (Faculty of Economics at the University of Augsburg)
Project description:

"Greenwashing is mentioned very frequently these days and in various contexts. In a recently published scientific study, ZfK member Prof. Dr. Sebastian Utz and Prof. Dr. Gregor Dorfleitner (University of Regensburg, Department of Finance) have classified the term greenwashing for four different levels (product level, company level, financial intermediation level and regulatory level) and proposed a theoretical model of how greenwashing can be measured at the company level using an indicator. The corporate level is of particular importance as it can have an impact on the other levels. The importance of measuring greenwashing at company level stems from the fact that companies deceive consumers, competitors, customers and investors in their consumption and investment decisions through conscious or unconscious greenwashing activities. This means that, on the one hand, capital that should be used for the ecological transformation may flow to companies that are not "green" as intended. On the other hand, buyers of the goods could face challenges in connection with the Supply Chain Act if a supplier were suddenly found guilty of greenwashing. With the help of the greenwashing indicator developed, it should be possible for all stakeholders to better assess the risk of greenwashing at individual companies.

The research paper has been published in the scientific journal "Review of Managerial Science" and is entitled "Green, green, it's green they say: a conceptual framework for measuring greenwashing on firm level". You can access the study free of charge via the following link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11846-023-00718-w

Project duration: 01.10.2021 - 30.12.2022
Funding institution: Bavarian State Ministry for the Environment and Consumer Protection
Coordinator CCR: Prof. Dr. Harald Kunstmann, Chair of Regional Climate and Hydrology (Institute of Geography at the University of Augsburg)
Project description: Further information can be found here.

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