News and Insights

Do Responsible Investors Invest Responsibly? - new publication by Rajna Gibson Brandon and Philipp Krueger

In a new paper, GFRI's professors Rajna Gibson Brandon and Philipp Krueger study whether institutional investors that sign the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), a commitment to responsible investing, exhibit better portfolio-level environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores.

 

Signatories outside the US have superior ESG scores than non-signatories, but US signatories have at best similar ESG ratings, and worse scores if they have underperformed recently, are retail-client facing, and joined the PRI late.

US signatories do not improve the ESG scores of portfolio companies after investing in them. Commercial motives, uncertainty about fiduciary duties, and lower ESG market maturity explain why US-domiciled PRI signatories do not follow through on their responsible investment commitments.

The paper was co-authored with Simon Glossner, Pedro Matos, and Tom Steffen.

It  was recently published in the Review of Finance, and featured by "The Economist".

 

For the paper >

For the article in "The Economist" >

Jan 4, 2023

News and Insights