Sustainable Finance, Digital Innovation, and Market Behaviour

This research area explores the next phase of transformation in financial markets — where sustainability, technology, and data interact to redefine value creation, transparency, and risk. While ESG integration, fintech, and corporate governance have been widely studied, emerging questions lie in how these forces combine, how markets internalise them, and what new asymmetries or inefficiencies they create.

Projects in this area bridge empirical finance and sustainable innovation, focusing on underexplored mechanisms and new datasets. Students will develop quantitative, programming, and analytical skills applicable to both academic and industry careers.

Potential directions include:

• AI and Market Behaviour: How does generative AI adoption influence market information diffusion, trading patterns, or analyst accuracy?
• Impact Materiality 2.0: Do investors respond differently to double materiality disclosures under evolving EU/UK sustainability frameworks?
• Greenwashing Detection: Can textual or sentiment analysis of ESG reports reveal systematic misalignment between disclosure and real performance?
• Transition Risk Pricing: How do markets price climate transition risk in credit spreads or derivatives?
• Digital Asset Governance: What forms of governance or auditing increase trust in tokenised or decentralised financial systems?
• Data Infrastructure for Sustainable Finance: How do new sustainability data platforms or AI tools affect accessibility, comparability, and accountability in ESG investing?

Qualifications required:
A merit at Masters, or equivalent international qualifications

Subject backgrounds considered:
Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, or a related discipline

Experience/other skills and qualities required:
- Evidence of quantitative, analytical, or data-handling skills (e.g. econometrics, statistics, or programming).
- Ability to undertake independent research and critical analysis of financial or ESG data.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills in English.

We welcome applications from motivated students with a strong academic background and an interest in sustainability, finance, or financial innovation. Applicants should demonstrate the ability to engage with quantitative or analytical research and an enthusiasm for exploring emerging topics in sustainable and digital finance. We particularly encourage applications from candidates who are eager to apply quantitative methods to real-world financial and sustainability challenges, and who seek to develop skills that bridge academia and industry.

• Dr Joy Jia
• y.jia@swansea.ac.uk
• 01792 602112

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