“Responsible Institutional Investing Around the World”

Rajna Gibson (U Geneva), Philipp Krueger (U Geneva), Pedro Matos, and Tom Steffen (U Geneva)

ABSTRACT

We explore a novel survey on responsible investing by institutional investors around the world and match it to archival data on equity portfolio holdings. We study what factors make institutions commit to responsible investing and to incorporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into their investment processes. We examine different styles of ESG implementation (e.g., screening, integration, corporate engagement) and how these various strategies perform in terms of delivering positive ESG outcomes in the corporations that compose the investors’ equity portfolios. We find considerable differences between European and North American investors as well as early versus late Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI) signatories.