The Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE) is delighted to announce the winners of the FESE De la Vega Prize 2025. For the first time in the prize’s history, two academic papers have been selected, reflecting the quality of current research in the field. The winners are: Niels Joachim Gormsen, Kilian Huber, and Sangmin S. Oh for “Climate Capitalists” and Byungwook Kim for “Do Share Repurchases Increase the Value of Nonrepurchasing Firms?”.
According to the independent jury of the FESE De la Vega Prize, both papers were selected for their innovative and impactful contributions to financial research.
“Climate Capitalists” investigates how climate-related concerns influence the cost of capital and, in turn, the incentives for firms to pursue green investments. In theory, a cost of capital channel can raise green investments similarly to a carbon tax, even if the returns to green investments remain low. This channel requires that firms perceive the cost of green capital as lower than that of brown capital. Using hand-collected data, the authors show that green and brown firms perceived their cost of capital to be the same before 2016. Once climate concerns by financial investors and governments surged after 2016, green firms perceived their cost of capital to be on average 1 percentage point lower. The findings suggest that the cost of capital channel can incentivise the reallocation of capital toward greener investments across firms and within firms.
“Do Share Repurchases Increase the Value of Non-repurchasing Firms?” shows how share repurchases have increasingly surpassed dividends as the primary means of distributing cash to investors. The author shows that most cash distributed through share repurchases ultimately flows back into the stock market, particularly into non-repurchasing firms. He provides evidence that these flows increase the value of non-repurchasing firms without subsequent reversals. The impact of share repurchase flows is most pronounced among nonrepurchasing firms that share similar characteristics with repurchasing firms (e.g., size, market-to-book ratios). The author finds that the recent disproportionate increase in share repurchases by growth firms, relative to value firms, has contributed to the decline of the value premium.
Celebrating 25 years of the FESE De la Vega Prize
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the FESE De la Vega Prize. The awards were presented by FESE President Niels Brab on 4th June 2025 during the FESE Convention, titled “Empowering Europe’s Financial Future: The Savings and Investments Union”.
Niels Brab FESE President commented:
“After 25 years, the De la Vega Prize continues to recognise outstanding young academic research, enhancing our understanding of how financial markets function. This year’s winners exemplify the relevance that defines the Prize, offering valuable insights into topics ranging from sustainable finance to corporate decision-making.”
About the FESE De la Vega Prize
Each year since 2000, the FESE De la Vega Prize has been awarded to a young scholar for an outstanding research paper on financial markets. The Prize particularly values papers about current developments in European financial markets which promote public markets. More information is available here.
FESE De la Vega Prize Jury 2025
- Söhnke M. Bartram, Ph.D., Professor of Finance, University of Warwick and Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)
- Marlene D. Haas, Ph.D., Principal, Cornerstone Research
- Thomas Johann, Assistant Professor, University of Mannheim
- Arman Khachaturyan, Ph.D., Government Affairs Advisor
- Thorsten Martin, Associate Professor of Finance, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management
- Ángel Pardo Tornero, Professor, Department of Financial Economics, University of Valencia
- Talis Putnins, Professor, Finance Discipline Group, University of Technology Sydney
- Roger Silvers, Assistant Professor, School of Accounting, David Eccles School of Business, The University of Utah
- Apostolos Thomadakis, Ph.D., Head of Research, European Capital Markets Institute (ECMI); Research Fellow, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Christian Westheide, Senior Lecturer in Finance, University of Edinburgh
