Master´s Thesis Evaluation by the Opponent
Title of the Master´s Thesis:
The impact of corporate green bonds in firms, investors and the environment Author of the Master´s Thesis:
Marta Moreira
Goals of the Master´s Thesis:
Investigate how the introduction of green bonds has impacted the outcomes for the three main parties involved in green bond issuance (firms, investors and the environment). Investigate who has benefited the most from the introduction of green bonds in the corporate world.
Evaluation:
Criteria Description Max.
points
Points
Content 70%
Output Quality The author picked an interesting and trendy topic and presents a solid master thesis. The key question whether and how green/ESG bonds differ from conventional bonds is not easy to answer because ESG is a complex topic and green/ESG bonds represent a relatively new asset class. As a result, the author has had to navigate around the lack of relevant/quality data. This has, inevitably, had an impact on the research design, which had to be somewhat trimmed and simplified.
20 18
Goals The goals of the thesis are evident and generally accomplished. Identifying and analysing the impact of green bonds on various stakeholders proved to be complicated with the chosen design of testing vis-à-vis the limitations posed by the insufficient data set available. The author has, however, managed this aspect well.
10 10
Methodology: The statistical methodology applied is fairly advanced and deserves a commendation. It might have been beneficial to apply some additional, methodologically simpler but potentially more insightful, comparisons that would look at the bond issues with substantially the same features (e.g. the underlying credit risk, issue size, tenor, etc.) from the same issuer. For example, the German government now regularly issues bonds with the exact same parameters with only one difference being that one is an ESG bond and one is a conventional bond. These issues point to a clearly identifiable premium (so called greenium) from the issuer’s perspective. There is also an increasing amount of research (albeing not necessarily academic) which points to some statistically significant and positive differences (i.e. the above mentioned greenium, lower new issue concessions or secondary market performance). It should objectively be noted, though, that this research is so far only accessible to large institutional investors and not general public.
20 18
Theory/
Conceptualization:
The author provides a comprehensive literature review. The research would perhaps benefit from tryig to factor in some additional and rather crucial variables (e.g. position of a particular bond in an issuer’s capital structure that would ordinarily have been reflected in the instrument’s credit rating, put/call features, etc.). Also, when investors evaluate investments into fixed income instruments, they usually look at credit spreads rather than the yield to maturity or the coupon (which are generally driven by the monetary policy and/or the overall market sentiment that are beyond an issuer’s control). This would have been a more relevant measure to analyse, although – once again, as mentioned above – this data is not always easily accessible to general public.
20 18
Formal requirements 15% Structure: The thesis is coherent, logically structured and easy to follow.
3 3
Terminology: Meets the expectations.
4 4
Formalities: The formal lay-out, abstract, etc. meet expectations.
4 4
Citing: Meets expected standards. Extensive citations of relevant research.
4 4
Delivery 15 %
Presentation document:
Is the presentation itself structured in a clear way? Is it appealing and easy to
follow? Does it convey the message efficiently? 5
Presentation skills:
Are you conveying the message efficiently and timely? Do you use
appropriate words, speed, tone of voice, gestures, movement etc. to express
your thoughts in a clear manner? 5
Argumentation: Are you able to readily and briskly react to questions or comments? Are you able to explain unclear parts and connect comments to relevant places in your presentation or parts of particular analyses? How well are you able to defend to your ideas and recommendations?
5
100 0
