Gir ESG-porteføljer høyere risikojustert avkastning? : en empirisk analyse av sammenhengen mellom ESG-gradering og over 400 europeiske selskaper

I lys av den økende interessen for bærekraftige investeringer det siste tiåret og forventningen om at dette området fremdeles vil fortsette å vokse, rettes det mye oppmerksomhet mot tematikken. En antagelse blant mange er at investorer kan oppnå meravkastning ved å investere i selskaper som innehar en høy bærekraftsgradering. I denne oppgaven analyserer vi sammenhengen mellom Refinitiv sin ESG-gradering og risikojustert avkastning. Utvalget vårt er hentet fra STOXX Europe 600. Porteføljekonstruksjonen er basert på en screeningtilnærming og en momentumsstrategi. Vi konstruerer 24 porteføljer bestående av selskaper fordelt på høy, medium og lav ESG-gradering i perioden 2011-2021. Regresjonsanalysene er utført ved å benytte kapitalverdimodellen og Fama-French sin trefaktormodell. Våre funn indikerer at investorer som investerer i porteføljer som er vektet mot høye ESG-graderinger må betale i form av en høyere systematisk risiko. Ved å investere i porteføljer basert på lave ESG-graderinger indikerer våre funn at dette fører til en risikojustert meravkastning. Analysen viser at porteføljene med lav gradering er vektet mot mindre selskaper, mens de med høy gradering er vektet mot store.Considering the growing interest in sustainable investments over the last decade, and the expectations for this to keep expanding, there is paid much attention to the topic. One assumption among many is that investors can achieve excess returns by investing in companies that have a high sustainability rating. In this thesis, we analyse the relationship between Refinitiv's ESG rating and risk-adjusted return. Our sample is taken from STOXX Europe 600. The portfolio construction is based on a screening approach and momentum strategy. We have constructed 24 portfolios consisting of companies divided into high, medium and low in regard to their ESG-ratings in the period 2011-2021. The regression analysis was performed using the Capital Asset Pricing Model and Fama-French's three-factor model. Our findings indicate that investors who invest in portfolios that are weighted towards high ESG-ratings will have to pay in the form of a higher systematic risk. By investing in portfolios based on low ESG-ratings, our study indicates that this can lead to a risk-adjusted excess return. The analysis shows that the portfolios with a low ESG-rating are weighted toward smaller companies, while those with a high rating are weighted toward large ones.M-Ø

Potential Routes for Thermochemical Biorefineries

This critical review focuses on potential routes for the multi-production of chemicals and fuels in the framework of thermochemical biorefineries. The up-to-date research and development in this field has been limited to BTL/G (biomass-to-liquids/gases) studies, where biomass-derived synthesis gas (syngas) is converted into a single product with/without the co-production of electricity and heat. Simultaneously, the interest on biorefineries is growing but mostly refers to the biochemical processing of biomass. However, thermochemical biorefineries (multi-product plants using thermo-chemical processing of biomass) are still the subject of few studies. This scarcity of studies could be attributed to the limitations of current designs of BTL/G for multi-production and the limited number of considered routes for syngas conversion. The use of a platform chemical (an intermediate) brings new opportunities to the design of process concepts, since unlike BTL/G processes they are not restricted to the conversion of syngas in a single-reaction system. Most of the routes presented here are based on old-fashioned and new routes for the processing of coal- and natural-gas-derived syngas, but they have been re-thought for the use of biomass and the multi-production plants (thermochemical biorefinery). The considered platform chemicals are methanol, DME, and ethanol, which are the common products from syngas in BTL/G studies. Important keys are given for the integration of reviewed routes into the design of thermochemical biorefineries, in particular for the selection of the mix of co-products, as well as for the sustainability (co-feeding, CO2 capture, and negative emissions).Ministerio de Educación FPU Program (AP2010-0119)Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad ENE2012-3159

The effect of sector quality in quality minus junk : the quality puzzle deepens

In this thesis we test whether sector quality effects drive the abnormal returns of the Quality Minus Junk (QMJ) strategy. We find that the strategy makes involuntarily sector bets, as it invests in outperforming sectors rather than individual quality stocks. This implies that sector quality effects partially drive the QMJ abnormal returns. A consequence of the sector quality effects is lack of diversification in the QMJ strategy. Having established that sector quality effects partially drive QMJ abnormal returns, we create a sector neutral QMJ that is restricted to how aggressively it can invest in sectors. This strategy is more diversified than the unrestricted QMJ but does not match its performance in terms of abnormal returns and Sharpe ratio. We volatility-manage the sector neutral strategy and find that it yields significant abnormal returns and Sharpe ratio of the same magnitude as the unrestricted QMJ strategy. In other words, the volatility-managed strategy does not bet on outperforming sectors, and still performs well in return tests. Therefore, the QMJ abnormal returns cannot be explained by sector quality effects, and the quality puzzle deepens.nhhma

The Norwegian Charging Station Database for Electromobility (NOBIL)

How did Norway get a highly developed database for charging stations, capable of real-time updates on availability, ready and free to be adopted by any country? A co-operation between Transnova, a governmental entity, and the association of EV-users to develop an open database which allows everyone to build services upon standardized data

"Hvilke forståelser ligger til grunn når overleger ved intensivavdeling vurderer å avstå fra eller trekke tilbake livsforlengende behandling? Hvordan preger dette beslutningen og måten behandlingen trekkes tilbake på?"

Denne studien gjør rede for og drøfter funn fra seks kvalitative intervju av overleger fra to intensivavdelinger på universitetssykehus i Norge. Forståelsen av begrepene aktiv og passiv dødshjelp er sentral i oppgaven, og det kommer frem en forståelse av aktiv dødshjelp som hindrer overlegene i å trekke tilbake respiratorbehandling til pasienter som ikke puster selv. Dette forstår de som aktiv dødshjelp og dermed uetisk og ulovlig. Dette selv om behandlingen er nytteløs og bare forlenger en dødsprosess. Disse pasientene ligger på respirator til de dør. Livserfaring og lang erfaring som lege ligger delvis til grunn for den faglige skjønnsmessige vurdderingen i disse situasjonene. Disse erfaringene er også med på å identifisere etiske aspekter ved praksis i intensivavdelingene. Problemer oppstår når overlegene må forholde seg til konvensjoner, rutiner og forståelser som fremstår som ureflekterte og absolutte. Dette fremstår som et hinder for utvikling av skjønn. Tibaketrekking av livsforlengende behandling oppleves som vanskeligere og utføre enn å unnlate å behandle, til tross for at fem av overlegene mener det fåregår overbehandling ved egen avdeling. Overlegene søker et ettergivelig forhold til pårørende og ønsker å sikre de en forståelse av den medisinsk vanskelige situasjonen intensivpasienten er i. Overlegene tilkjennegir forestillinger om pårørende som begrenser og påvirker avslutningen av den livsforlengende behandlingen. Intensivlegene forstår en verdig død ulikt, men er enige om at tiltak ved livets slutt skal være styrt av hvilken intensjon handlingen har. En overlege tar til orde for at en verdig død må knyttes til pasientens historie, og dette studiet argumenterer for at dette kan sikre en døende pasients integritet ved livets slutt

Information theoretic learning for pattern classification

This thesis is a study of pattern classification based on information theoretic criteria. Information theoretic criteria are important measures based on entropy and divergence between data distributions. First, the basic concepts of pattern classification with the well known Bayes classification rule as a starting point is discussed. We discuss how the Parzen window estimator may be used to find good density estimates. The Parzen window density estimator can be used to estimate cost functions based on information theoretic criteria. Furthermore, we explain a model of an information theoretic learning machine. With cost functions based on information theoretic criteria, we argue that a learning machine potentially captures much more information about a data set than the traditional mean squared error cost (MSE) function. We find that there is a geometric link between information theoretic cost functions estimated using Parzen windowing, and mean vectors in a Mercer kernel feature space. This link is used to propose and implement different classifiers based on the integrated squared error (ISE) divergence measure, operating implicitly in a Mercer kernel feature space. We also apply spectral methods to implement the same ISE classifiers working in approximations of Mercer kernel feature spaces. We investigate the performance of the classifiers when we weight each data point with the the inverse of the probability density function at that point. We find that the ISE classifiers working implicitly in the Mercer kernel feature space performs similar to a Parzen window based Bayes classifier. Using a weighted inner-product definition gives slightly better results for some data sets, while for other data sets the classification rates are slightly worse. When comparing the results between the implicit ISE classifier using unweighted data points and the Parzen window Bayes classifier, some of the results indicate that the ISE classifier favor the classes with highest entropy

Information theoretic learning for pattern classification

This thesis is a study of pattern classification based on information theoretic criteria. Information theoretic criteria are important measures based on entropy and divergence between data distributions. First, the basic concepts of pattern classification with the well known Bayes classification rule as a starting point is discussed. We discuss how the Parzen window estimator may be used to find good density estimates. The Parzen window density estimator can be used to estimate cost functions based on information theoretic criteria. Furthermore, we explain a model of an information theoretic learning machine. With cost functions based on information theoretic criteria, we argue that a learning machine potentially captures much more information about a data set than the traditional mean squared error cost (MSE) function. We find that there is a geometric link between information theoretic cost functions estimated using Parzen windowing, and mean vectors in a Mercer kernel feature space. This link is used to propose and implement different classifiers based on the integrated squared error (ISE) divergence measure, operating implicitly in a Mercer kernel feature space. We also apply spectral methods to implement the same ISE classifiers working in approximations of Mercer kernel feature spaces. We investigate the performance of the classifiers when we weight each data point with the the inverse of the probability density function at that point. We find that the ISE classifiers working implicitly in the Mercer kernel feature space performs similar to a Parzen window based Bayes classifier. Using a weighted inner-product definition gives slightly better results for some data sets, while for other data sets the classification rates are slightly worse. When comparing the results between the implicit ISE classifier using unweighted data points and the Parzen window Bayes classifier, some of the results indicate that the ISE classifier favor the classes with highest entropy

Valid and Reliable? A Critical Analysis of the Final Written Exam in English in the Upper Secondary School

ABSTRACT This study focuses on which competence aims that are actually measured in the written exam in English in Norwegian upper secondary schools and, further, on students' understanding of the texts and the tasks in the exam sets. English is a mandatory subject for first year students in the general studies programmes in the upper secondary schools. In the vocational study programmes the subject is compulsory as well, but it spans over two years, and students sit for the exam at the end of their second year. The written examination is prepared, and graded centrally by the Norwegian Directorate of Education. The study is based on the analysis of six exams sets from spring 2010 to fall 2013. As well as looking at which competence aims that are tested, the study further aims to investigate to what extent the students understand the texts and tasks that are given, so that they are able to show a broad spectrum of their competence. In addition, surveys and interviews with students from both general and vocational study programs (building and construction) have been carried out. As this exam is considered a high stake test it is important that the validity and reliability are high. This is also investigated. The analysis of the exam sets showed a considerable difference in which, and how many, competence aims were tested in each set. Consequently, students who sit for the same examination are not measured in the same competence aims. What is measured, further depends on the tasks the student chooses, the content of the text they write and whether or not they are aware of what they should write about in order to show a broad spectrum of their competence. The findings also show the vocational students were not very motivated to read the texts in the preparation booklet. The majority found the texts difficult, tedious and not at all related to their field of study. Students from general studies were more positive to the text booklet and saw the benefits of it. Regarding the prompts, the vocational students were generally better at choosing the writing tasks that suited their study programme and the tasks in which they were able to show their competence the best. The study concludes that the ENG1002/1003 exam does not measure a broad spectrum of competences. The competence aims are complex and difficult to measure, the texts in the preparation booklet are not interesting and useful for all students and the prompts are unclear. Consequently, this makes the exam, in its present form, invalid and unreliable