Governance and Accountability Research Group (GARG) was formed in 2020 as a spin out from the then Bristol Centre for Economics and Finance (BCEF). For a while, research in Accounting and Finance was under BCEF until it became necessary to have our own research group and to provide a platform for us to maintain our research identity and to galvanize research within our cluster. GARG remains the home for many researchers within the Accounting and Finance cluster in the Business School, College for Business and Law.
Our research spans corporate disclosure, accountability, ESG and sustainability, addressing salient issues within that space including but not limited to the green financial option, sustainability and financial performance, socially responsible investment options and behavioural finance research. Researching ESG and sustainability has been underpinned by corporate disclosure requirements and increasing focus on the role of organisational governance in ensuring assurance and compliance to regulation and meeting ethical standard across industries and jurisdictions.
Our core finance research experts focus on asset pricing and stock valuation. Within these areas, we are renowned for our cutting-edge research on advancing the Fama and French CAPM model with creative conditional higher moment and conditional switching regimes. Behavioural finance addressing managerial optimism and investment decisions. We are also well known for our ground breaking research into herding behaviours, blockchain and cryptocurrencies within the financial market and the use of these technologies in fighting financial crimes.
Our research in these areas have led to important collaborations with the industry and the criminal justice system. We have maintained close relationships with the Regional Organised Crime Unit in manpower development, research informed practices and thought leadership around accounting and finance expertise that enhances their work. Our Blockchain and cryptocurrencies research has gained momentum, and we are now pivoting new horizon in digital assets their disclosure, ethical issues associated with them and their increasing prudent use in several sectors of the economy.
We are a agile group and are open to new opportunities including collaboration, knowledge exchange arrangements and joint funding applications.
For more information about our research group, members, themes and members, visit our website.