Research success for prosperity and resilience papers

Dr Edward Shepherd, Lecturer in Real Estate Development, and Dr Lisa Schopohl, Lecturer in Finance, have been named as the winner and runner-up of the Research Output Prize for Early Careers Researchers at the University of Reading Court, a showcase annual event for the University and Henley Business School community. Their research was submitted to the ‘prosperity and resilience’ category.

Dr Shepherd has received this honour for his research into the ideology of the institution of national English town and country planning and Dr Schopohl’s paper, co-authored with Visiting Professor Dr Andreas Hoepner, explored state pension funds and corporate social responsibility.

Using historical methods and interviews with civil servants, politicians and practitioners, Dr Shepherd looked at the relationship between national political ideologies and changes to English town and country planning policy and legislation. His findings show that planning is intimately connected with political concepts such as liberty, property and the state, the natures of which are disputed from competing ideological perspectives. The paper traces how ideological debates have both hampered and stabilised English planning since the 1880s.

With her co-author, Dr Schopohl examined the drivers behind US public pension funds’ tendency to tilt their portfolios towards companies with strong corporate social responsibility (CSR). From studying the equity holdings of large, internally managed US state pension funds, it is evident that the political learning of beneficiaries and political pressure by state politicians affect funds’ investment decisions, for example, funds with Democratic-leaning beneficiaries invest more frequently in companies with strong CSR values.

Their research featured amongst a number of entries from other colleagues across the wider University of Reading academic body in a variety of research areas.

See the full story on the University of Reading research blog.

Photo, L-R: Lord Waldegrave of North Hill (Chancellor), Dr Edward Shepherd, Professor Robert Van de Noort (Vice-Chancellor)