On 30 November 2022, Professor Michael Halling gave his inaugural lecture, entitled “Sustainable Finance: A Diverse and Multifaceted Research Area!” to colleagues and students at the FDEF, as well as representatives from the Luxembourg Ministry of Finance. After a welcome from FDEF Dean, Professor Katalin Ligeti and a brief overview of Prof. Halling’s academic and professional background, Prof. Halling presented an overview of current research topics in Sustainable Finance including the role of investor preferences and their impact on asset prices and corporate decisions, the response of the global asset management industry to the challenge of decarbonising their portfolios, and ways to address the data challenge in Sustainable finance using, for example, natural language processing techniques.
Michael Halling joined the University of Luxembourg in January 2021, as Full Professor within the Department of Finance, and moved into his current role as the Chair and coordinator of the research program in Sustainable Finance in November 2021. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the Vienna University of Technology and a PhD in finance from the University of Vienna.
During his academic career, he spent five years at the University of Utah and almost nine years at the Stockholm School of Economics. Prof. Halling’s research ranges from empirical asset pricing, asset management and business-cycle dynamics of firms’ capital structures, to sustainable finance. His work has been published in leading journals including the Journal of Finance, the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and the Review of Finance.
To get to know Prof. Halling and his work a little better, we asked him a few questions, and summed up his answers in this short interview.
Can you sum up your educational and professional background?
I am originally from Austria, and I began my education at the University of Vienna where studied Finance and at the Vienna University of Technology where I studied Computer science, and obtained a Master degree in both fields. I then began my PhD in Computer Science, specifically software engineering, in Vienna, but when I realised that I couldn’t give up my other interest, I also completed a doctoral degree in Finance.
Ultimately I focused on finance and I began my career at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, before moving back to Europe and joining the Stockholm School of Economics. After nine years in Stockholm, I accepted the position of Full Professor in Finance at the University of Luxembourg and since November 2021, I’ve been Chairholder for the Chair and Research Program in Sustainable Finance.
How would you explain your research to someone that knows absolutely nothing about it?
My research is first and foremost empirical, meaning that I work a lot with data. My research is quite broad in scope, but some of the things that I look at center around financial investment decisions studying, for example, the returns of various financial assets and of mutual funds. As Chairholder for the Chair in Sustainable Finance, I am focused especially on the roles that financial markets can play in the transition towards more sustainable economies and societies. For example, with some of my colleagues at the University of Luxembourg as well as internationally we study mutual funds and assess to what extent their investment decisions during the past few years have become greener and have focused on more sustainable firms. Ultimately, of course, we would like to understand whether any changes in the investment behaviour of mutual funds have had any impact on the behaviour of the underlying firms.
What inspires you in your work?
The entire University environment inspires me. I just love working at a university, doing research and teaching students. However, it is the teaching aspect that inspires me the most. I see teaching as both a privilege and a responsibility which fosters connections between people and ideas. It is a way to have a real impact on other people’s lives. It’s also a delight and a true reward when I hear from my former students after several years and see where life has taken them.
What do you hope to contribute to the University community?
What I hope to contribute to the University community is continued growth and development. In recent years, the FDEF and the Department of Finance have been experiencing a very positive dynamic and I would like to help to maintain this trend. I also hope to make the most of my interdisciplinary background. With my current teaching and research, especially with the Chair and Research Program in Sustainable Finance as well as the track in Digital Transformation in Finance, I feel that I’ve really come full circle and found a way to bring together my education and experience in both Finance and Computer Science.