At the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2020, Larry Fink – the chief executive of the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock – wore a climate change-themed scarf. It featured the “warming stripes” visual, where the color …

Just before year end, the Department of Labor finalized its new rules on ESG investing and voting for retirement and pension funds.  The rules sharply restrict the ability of the fiduciaries of retirement and pension funds to make investments based …

It is becoming clearer to investors and corporate managers that material environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) issues need to be managed as part of an organization’s business strategy.   Climate change, racism, economic inequality, water scarcity, cybersecurity threats – these …

Over the course of 2020, market forces drove corporations and institutional investors to make expansive commitments to their purpose and social responsibility. This fueled companies in many regions to publish lengthy reports under the ESG moniker (Environmental, Social and Governance). …

Late in the afternoon of the Friday before Election Day, the Department of Labor finalized a rule that requires pension and retirement plan fiduciaries to consider only financial interests when investing plan funds. On its face, the rule seems anodyne. …

Corporate purpose is having a moment, as it seems to do each generation or so. The Business Roundtable made waves last year by pivoting away from shareholder centrism in its “redefinition” of corporate purpose. Directors, officers, institutional investors, and others …

Institutional investors are increasingly playing a major role in the shift toward stakeholder capitalism.  They are also facing pressure from their clients and others to focus more on ensuring that their investments promote corporate sustainability. Such expectations are reinforced by …

Sustainability in business and environmental, social, or governance (ESG) factors in finance have entered the mainstream. In 2020, the CEO of Blackrock wrote: “Our investment conviction is that sustainability and climate integrated portfolios can provide better risk-adjusted returns to investors.”…

What do the emergence of independent directors in South Korea, the legal reforms on related-party transactions in India, the continued rise of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in the United States, and the global spread of corporate governance codes …

In a 1987 paper, available here, we  argued that non-investor stakeholders play an important role in influencing financial policy and corporate valuation. We also  distinguished explicit claims between a company and its counterparties from what we called implicit claims. …

This is the gossip season, and almost everyone has heard a rumor about who will be the next chair of the SEC. Although I was interviewed by the Biden transition team (for my views, not as a candidate), my sources …