This paper develops a general equilibrium model of a productive economy with negative externalities. Investors are not willing to accept lower returns than their best investment alternatives and entrepreneurs maximize profits. If capital markets are subject to a search friction, an ESG fund can...

We propose a theory in which each stock's environmental, social, and governance (ESG) score plays two roles: 1) providing information about firm fundamentals and 2) affecting investor preferences. The solution to the investor's portfolio problem is characterized by an ESG-efficient frontier,...

In recent years, impact investors - private investors who seek to generate simultaneously financial and social returns - have attracted intense interest and controversy. We analyze a novel, comprehensive data set of impact and traditional investors to assess how the non-financial characteristics...

We analyze how ownership concentration and type, and board independence are related to corporate social performance (CSP). Drawing from agency, team production and stakeholder perspectives, we argue that the distribution of costs and benefits to shareholders and other stakeholders is crucial to...

We study institutional investors' voice in the Netherlands, focusing on shareholder voting in particular. The Dutch Stewardship Code, developed by institutional investor platform Eumedion, came into force in January 2019, emphasises engagement and responsibilities of institutional investors in...

This paper develops a risk-management view of CSR by arguing that CSR provides insurance-like effects in adverse corporate events. Since passive investors have diversified away most idiosyncratic risks, we predict that they demand less CSR as a strategic approach to manage risks. Using the...

My paper discusses four empirical approaches of the Russell 1000/2000 index reconstitutions to identify the effects of institutional investors on firm outcomes. Unbiased empirical approaches suggest that between 1998 and 2006, firms ranked at the top of the Russell 2000 had at most a 2...

The U.S. equity market has witnessed the rising power of institutional investors over the past three decades. Yet, even as these institutional owners become more powerful their effect on corporate social responsibility (CSR) still remains unclear. The present study attempts to fill this gap by...

This paper documents a negative effect of institutional cross-blockholding on portfolio firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Our baseline results show that cross-held firms perform worse in CSR than non-cross-held firms do. A quasi-natural experiment based on mergers...

This article examines whether the heterogeneity of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) matters when investing in host firms that are considered to be socially responsible. Exploiting a mandated corporate social responsibility (CSR) regulation and using actual CSR expenditure data, the results...