Over the past decade, ESG has morphed from a fringe concern into one of the most prominent topics in corporate governance – and a flourishing research area as well.[1] Nevertheless, some notable blindspots remain. Based on a recent survey, …

Intense debates are alive and well on the nature and meaning of corporate purpose and corporate personhood. In a new paper, I analyze proposals by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission to require that all reporting companies make periodic, mandatory …

The Financial Economist Roundtable (“FER”) met in July 2021 to discuss current efforts to measure and require disclosure of firms’ ESG activities.[1]  The views of individual FER members about specific issues often differ, but the consensus was that financial …

At first glance, recent progress towards transparency in corporate climate-risk disclosures seems exceptional. Over 2,000 companies now publish annual reports showing their carbon emissions data (although most self-interestedly omit Scope 3 data). Many (including most recently ExxonMobil) have made a …

We are witnessing a shift in global economic activity from advanced markets to emerging ones.  According to the World Bank Group (2021) Global Economic Prospects report, emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) have experienced higher real gross domestic product (GDP) …

At least since BlackRock boss Larry Fink’s annual letter to CEOs in 2019, investing in ESG assets has become a major topic among both retail and institutional investors. In a new article, we address the question of how economically attractive …

The value of an investment is no longer just about financial returns. A growing number of investors and other corporate stakeholders are calling for their money to go toward stocks or funds that are both profitable over the long term …

Last October, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) launched what they are referring to as an aggressive effort to combat deliberate financial discrimination against …

Why do corporations, in particular public corporations, adopt corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies? The CSR adage of “doing well by doing good” suggests that a firm can achieve higher financial returns by balancing the goals of different stakeholders. There are …

ESG investing is taking the world of finance by storm.  Few concepts have come to dominate an academic discipline as quickly as Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) has come to dominate the field of corporate law.  While certain forms of …