Prof. Zacharias Sautner tells us more about his youth, studies, interests and current research in the interview below.

Where did you grow up?
I grew up in a small city called Calw in the German Black Forest, most known as the birthplace of Hermann Hesse, the writer and Nobel laureate. 
 

What were your hobbies as a child? 
I played football in the local football club. We were a pretty bad team, but I still have fond memories. You win together, and you lose together. Like in research teams. 
 

Where did you go to University?
I did a bachelor degree at what - back then - was called Berufsakademie. It was like an apprenticeship, just a bit more academic. As part of this, I worked for a savings bank. I still remember working at the bank counter; I was always extremely exhausted after finishing my working day. It was the toughest job I had so far. 
After that, I pursued a master degree at University of York in the UK. The university is not very known internationally for finance, but I received a very solid training. By the way, Daron Acemoglu also studied in York, before going to the US.
 

Where did you do your PhD? 
At the University of Mannheim in Germany. I was part of the econ PhD program, though my PhD was in finance. I finished my PhD in three years, including the course work. Not because I was particularly gifted, it was just the normal case back then. Difficult to imagine these days. 
 

Who were your PhD Advisors?
My PhD Advisor was Prof. Martin Weber, who worked on an impressive range of topics, including decision making, behavioral finance, corporate finance, and banking. He was very connected and recognized internationally, which for a long time was really an acceptation in Germany.
 

Any anecdote or memory from your time as PhD?
I found this to be a very stressful time, especially during the course phase. This was largely because I tried to compete with others, rather then “run my own race.”
 

What is your main research focus?
I work on sustainable finance, that is, I try to understand how environmental, social, and governance factors can be incorporated in investment and lending decisions to generate financial and societal value. 

What research are you working on right now that you are really excited about and why?
In one project, which we are currently writing up, we try to identify whether financial analysts in earnings calls ask climate-related questions for value or values reasons, whether this has changed over time, and how this affects their career paths. I like this project as it combines large language models with climate change, two important and defining topics of our time. 
 

What is the next sustainable finance problem you plan to work on?
I have started to work on biodiversity finance, trying to understand how to measure the negative impact of firms on nature, and whether this impact is priced in financial markets. I just started to scratch at the surface of the topic. It is an exciting field that connects to so many other areas, including geography or biology. I am sure we will see much finance work on this topic moving forward. 
 

What attracted you to Switzerland, UZH and SFI?
The combination of a strong broad university, the opportunity to be associated with SFI, and the privilege to live in one of the wealthiest, most stable, most well-functioning, and most beautiful countries in the world. Really a privilege in these uncertain times!
 

What languages do you speak?
Swabian and some English. I try to twist my Swabian a bit so that it sounds like Swiss-German. In fact, there are quite some similarities, as both places are not that far apart.  

Tell us something exciting that happened to you in the last five-ten years (it doesn’t have to be related to research)?
The most exciting events were meeting my wife and being fortunate to see my three daughters being born and grow up. 
 

What do you do in your spare time?
We love to do daytrips together, be it trips to other cities in Switzerland or trips to hike into the beautiful Swiss nature. 

What is your favorite holiday destination?
Italy by a margin. Beautiful old towns, varied nature, fantastic food and wine, and people that are very friendly to kids. Nothing else needed.  
 

What is your favorite quote?
“I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” Mark Twain
I try to remember this line whenever I write papers. So much truth to it. 
 

What question do you not like getting asked and why? 
“What’s your identification strategy?” Too often this had led to researcher examine second- or third-order questions, rather than poorly identified first-order questions. My most cited work is based on surveys. Not much of an identification strategy can be found there.