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The Life Market is a major new global capital market for transferring longevity risk from corporate pension plans and annuity providers to long-term capital market investors, such as sovereign wealth funds and endowments, in exchange for a longevity risk premium (paid to the investors by the institutions laying off their longevity risk). Previously, the only source of longevity risk hedging was the insurance industry which, given that so many people are living much longer than anticipated, now has insufficient capacity to deal with this risk (estimated at $25trillion) on a global basis. The size of their future pension liabilities now present serious threats to the solvency of many companies. The longevity bonds and swaps designed by Professor David Blake at the Pensions Institute at Cass Business School, City University London, were integral to the creation and operation of the Life Market. The adoption of these bonds and swaps by investors has served to establish a global capital market investor base contributing towards the long-term availability of longevity solutions, benefiting the insurance and pensions industries, employers and, in turn, employees through greater security of their pensions in retirement.
This case study charts the influence of the Risk On / Risk Off (RORO) paradigm, developed in research at the University of Oxford in collaboration with investment bank HSBC. Since 2008, RORO has had a significant economic impact on HSBC as well as wider impact on the thinking and actions of investors and other global market participants. Having begun as a specialised research tool within HSBC's foreign exchange team, the RORO methodology was publicised in the advice that HSBC supply to a wide range of major fund managers, corporate institutions and central banks. The research has led directly to a change in the way that asset managers think about investment decisions, with consequent impact on the investment and risk management strategies they undertake. RORO is regularly featured in the financial press and is becoming increasingly mainstream, with coverage in national and international media aimed at retail investors.
The Dimson-Marsh-Staunton study of long-run global asset returns involved (i) the construction of a unique database of long-run returns on stocks, bonds, bills, inflation, currencies, GDP and population growth for 22 countries since 1900; and (ii) interrogation of this resource to answer contemporary questions in investment, finance, and regulation. It underpins a worldwide reappraisal of the size of the equity risk premium. The project has informed the strategy of the world's largest investors; influenced cost of capital estimates and real investment decisions in leading corporations; and guided regulation of financial institutions, utilities, and other businesses.
The home bias is the observation that investors systematically hold far too many domestic assets, and consequently far too few foreign assets, than is justified by economic models. Ian Cooper, Evi Kaplanis, Richard Portes, and Heĺene ` Rey, developed the theory of and evidence for the home bias phenomenon. This research has had a substantial impact on investment managers (via additional value from increasing the global diversification of their portfolios), and on central banks and regulators (via accounting for the excessive concentration in domestic debt).
Professor Costas Grammenos' research at City University London changed the way traditional family shipping companies perceived the capital markets as a source of finance. Dissemination of his research to the international business community through international dialogue, debates and speeches has made a significant impact on the international shipping industry, in which several City alumni raised, or helped others to raise, funds from major global capital markets (e.g., New York, London). Up to 2000, only 25 shipping companies had raised finance from the US equity capital markets, with the number increasing to 56 for the period from 2000 to 2013.
Work by University of Stirling staff has contributed directly to improved wildlife resource management in the Central African region. Innovative research into the status and trends of key wildlife populations, ecological impacts, resource harvests and trade, drivers of resource use and assessing management success have contributed directly to new thinking on the issue, revisions of laws and policy and to success in attracting foreign aid for management issues. Stirling staff members now advise the Government of Gabon on resource management policies, National Park management and biodiversity issues.
Through Community Finance Solutions (CFS), an award winning research and development unit of the University of Salford, which addresses financial and social exclusion, Improving the Sustainability of Micro-financial Institutions is focused on providing leadership in increasing the sustainability of micro-financial institutions (MFIs) that provide credit or loans to the financially excluded, demonstrating the following impact:
Two books and review/research articles in Italian have disseminated the findings from the underpinning research on creating false autobiographical memories and the dangers of inadequate interviewing techniques. This work has critically increased awareness in the Italian legal system amongst both barristers and judges, to the point of shaping the practice of interviewing witnesses in that country. It has also informed all verdicts on child sexual abuse by the Supreme Court of Cassation.
Professor Hani Hagras' research into type-2 Fuzzy Logic Controllers (FLCs) underpins novel control systems which avoid the drawbacks and shortcomings of the type-1 FLCs used in numerous real world applications. Type-2 FLCs, developed at Essex, enable challenging applications to be realised and managed with better accuracy and robustness. Such applications include: