Retail investors are an essential group in shaping the effects of ESG investing and ESG assets under management are growing at an exponential rate. This study of retail investors' demand generates first evidence on their ESG-relevant decisions. In general, ESG was regarded as a highly...

Private investors are an increasingly important voice in sustainability challenges. We examine investors' attitudes and behavior towards sustainable investing through a survey of 5,030 Finnish private investors. We document that 60 percent of all respondents consider environmental, social, and...

Trustees and other investment fiduciaries of pensions, charities, and personal trusts, and those who advise them, face increasing pressure to rely on ESG factors in the investment management of tens of trillions of dollars of other people's money. At the same time, however, confusion abounds...

Using survey data from a sample of senior investment professionals from mainstream (i.e. not SRI funds) investment organizations we provide insights into why and how investors use reported environmental, social and governance (ESG) information. Relevance to investment performance is the most...

This article asks how sustainable investing (SI) contributes to societal goals, conducting a literature review on investor impact—that is, the change investors trigger in companies' environmental and social impact. We distinguish three impact mechanisms: shareholder engagement, capital...

The low volatility factor in conjunction with the style factors Quality, Value and Momentum, has empirically proven to be able to moderate market risks and improve a portfolio’s overall risk-return profile. By integrating ESG into such a factor portfolio, future risks may be mitigated. We...

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing has mushroomed in the recent past. As assets under management have grown impressively, so have questions. This chapter surveys the landscape of ESG investing, starting with definitions, components, investing strategies, market size, and the...

This paper studies the impact of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings on investors' preferences and stock prices. We exploit a change in ESG rating methodology that non-linearly shifted ESG ratings for firms as a natural experiment. We show that the 'pseudo'-changes in the ESG...

Using 2010-2019 stock-level data in US, we examine whether and how retail investors trade on environmental, social, and government (ESG) information. Although retail investors trade more on ESG disclosed stocks than no-disclosed stocks, ESG disclosure information does not help retail investors...

Using criteria based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations has become an increasingly important aspect of investment decision making, particularly for high profile institutional investors. As of 2019, sustainable assets under management were estimated to be $30 trillion...