Wagner Receives European Finance Association Prize

Hannes Wagner (Department of Finance) received the SAC Capital Advisors Best Conference Paper Prize at the European Finance Association (EFA) 39th Annual Meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark (15-18 August 2012).

The prize is the highest distinction awarded for an academic paper presented during the EFA meeting, seen as the most important finance conference in Europe.

The Best Conference Paper Prize was jointly assigned to two papers: Wagner's Does Family Control Matter? International Evidence from the 2008-2009 Financial Crisis (with Karl Lins, University of Utah, and Paolo Volpin, London Business School) and Flight to Where? Evidence from Bank Investments During the Financial Crisis, by Thomas Hildebrand (ECA Economics), Jörg Rocholl (European School of Management and Technology) and Alexander Schulz (Deutsche Bundesbank).

The decision was taken by a six-member prize committee chaired by Ohio State University's Ingrid Werner.

The prize-winning paper studies whether and how family control affected valuation and corporate decisions during the 2008-2009 financial crisis, using a sample of more than 8,500 firms from 35 countries. "During a financial crisis, controlling families may experience liquidity shocks and increasing risk aversion. Thus, they may have greater incentives than in normal times to use their power to cut productive investment or divert resources at the expense of minority shareholders", Wagner and his co-authors write. "Our results support this view".