Financing a Sustainable Future

Yang Guo talks to Tom Gosling about her paper Leverage, Engagement and Welfare in Decentralised Financial Markets. The paper considers so-called “mandated funds” (sometimes called impact funds) which have a specific objective to address social goods such as the green transition. They discuss the free-riding problem that causes firms and funds to underinvest in projects that would enhance social welfare, and which challenges the ability of such funds to raise finance. Why should an investor that only cares about returns invest in such a fund?Yang explains the role of households who invest in cash deposits at banks rather than the stock market. The low interest rate earned on these deposits enables low-cost finance for the mandated funds to enhance leverage and make the returns viable for profit-seeking investors. This enables the funds to attract capital from return-focused investors not just those concerned about social welfare. The sector can then grow, increasing the share of firm equity held by the funds, leading to more firms transitioning to green, despite investors being entirely profit-motivated. The paper demonstrates the importance of market structures - not just fund types and mandates - for driving investment to the green transition.Host: ⁠⁠⁠Tom Gosling ⁠⁠⁠⁠Contributor: ⁠Yang GuoRead the paper: ⁠Leverage, Engagement, and Welfare in Decentralised Financial MarketsTo learn more about the Initiative in Sustainable Finance (ISF), visit ⁠⁠⁠ISF's website⁠⁠⁠.

Suren Gomtsyan talks to Tom Gosling about their paper "The Emergence of Pass-through Voting and its Implications for Shareholder Stewardship". Pass-through voting describes a range of approaches to enable investors in pooled investment funds to direct how the asset manager of the fund votes on shareholder resolutions at companies held by the fund. Suren and Tom discuss how the changing nature of investor stewardship, growth of index investing, and growing divergence of views on ESG issues have inevitably led to the emergence of pass-through voting. They discuss the motivations for asset owners and asset managers adopting the practice, and reasons why they might choose not to do so. They also discuss how the growth in pass-through voting could affect investor stewardship: while it allows views of the ultimate investors in the fund to be more directly reflected, it also has the potential to weaken stewardship by separating voting and engagement, and could create a more fragmented engagement landscape for companies.Host: ⁠⁠Tom Gosling ⁠⁠⁠Contributor: Suren Gomtsyan Read the paper: The Emergence of Pass-through Voting and its Implications for Shareholder StewardshipTo learn more about the Initiative in Sustainable Finance (ISF), visit ⁠⁠ISF's website⁠⁠.

Martin Oehmke (LSE) talks to Tom Gosling about his paper A Theory of Socially Responsible Investment, co-authored with Marcus Opp of the Stockholm School of Economics. The paper develops a model of socially responsible investment anchored in the corporate finance decision faced by a firm.  With a choice between dirty and (more expensive) clean technology. Martin explains how socially responsible investors can induce the firm to pivot to the cleaner choice. To have impact socially responsible investors have to care about reducing externalities (rather than just investing in clean firms) and have to be prepared to offer something profit seeking investors do not: in effect accepting a lower than market return. The requirement for responsible investors to trade-off returns for impact is a central finding of the model. But profit seeking investors still matter, and in combination profit seeking and responsible investors may cause greater scaling of green production than responsible investors by themselves. Impact funds need to be clear about the trade-off they are making between externality reduction and returns. Host: ⁠Tom Gosling ⁠⁠Contributor: Martin OehmkeRead the paper: A Theory of Socially Responsible InvestmentTo learn more about the Initiative in Sustainable Finance (ISF), visit ⁠ISF's website⁠.

In this episode, Tom Gosling speaks with Stefano Cascino about how large business groups respond to ESG disclosure rules. When parent companies face mandatory ESG reporting, they often improve their own scores—while quietly shifting environmentally or socially harmful activities to subsidiaries, especially those operating in countries with weaker institutions. Tom and Stefano discuss how this “ESG arbitrage” works in practice, why subsidiaries see more incidents after mandates are introduced, and how corporate groups restructure—through reallocating resources or divesting risky units—to manage these pressures. The conversation highlights the unintended consequences of uneven global regulation and why coordinated ESG policy matters.Host: Tom Gosling ⁠Contributor: Dr Stefano CascinoRead Stefano Cascino's paper, co-authored with Maria Correia: Behind the Corporate Veil: How Business Groups Arbitrage ESG Disclosure MandatesTo learn more about the Initiative in Sustainable Finance (ISF), visit ISF's website (⁠⁠https://www.fmg.ac.uk/isf⁠⁠). ⁠

Alperen Gözlügöl and Tom Gosling discuss the role that credit substitution plays in sustainable finance. One theory of change in sustainable finance is that directing credit allocation away from dirty firms and towards clean firms can cause the former to shrink and the latter to grow. In this interview, they discuss the ways in which credit substitution can cause this to break down. Putting pressure on bank credit can simply cause a shift to private credit. Differences in sustainable finance regulation across territories can result in shifts in financing and business activities. And even within regions, inconsistent sustainable finance regulation across different subsections of finance can create opportunities for credit substitution. Without a high level of consistency across and within regions and a holistic approach to regulation, credit substitution has significant potential to undermine sustainable finance goals. Host: ⁠Tom Gosling Contributor: Alperen GözlügölRead Alperen Gözlügöl's paper: Credit Substitution in Sustainable Finance: An Achilles Heel?To learn more about the Initiative in Sustainable Finance (ISF), visit ISF's website (⁠https://www.fmg.ac.uk/isf⁠).

Tom Gosling talks to Dimitri Vayanos about the impact the green investors can have on stock prices by divesting from dirty firms and investing in green firms. There's a debate in the academic literature about whether the impacts are negligible or substantial. Using a theoretical model, Dimitri and his co-authors identify a significant but modest impact on cost of capital, measured in a few tens of basis points and share price impacts over a decade of around 10%. So noticeable, but not transformative in the context of the green transition.  Host: ⁠⁠Tom Gosling⁠Contributor: Dimitri VayanosRead Dimitri Vayanos's paper, The Impact of Green Investors on Stock Prices, co-authored with Gong Cheng, Eric Jondeau and Benoît Mojon. To learn more about the Initiative in Sustainable Finance (ISF), visit ISF's website (⁠⁠https://www.fmg.ac.uk/isf⁠⁠).

Tom Gosling interviews Kim Fe Cramer, Assistant Professor of Finance on the compulsory CSR spending mandated for large Indian firms. They discuss how firms choose their CSR priorities and where they spend the money. CSR spending is focussed on a firm’s area of competitive advantage so is efficient, but is focussed in their home region, which often means that richer regions benefit from higher CSR spending, raising questions about equity. Host: ⁠Tom GoslingContributor: Kim Fe CramerRead Kim Fe Cramer's paper, When private firms provide public goods: the allocation of CSR spending, co-authored with Lucie Gadenne and Noémie Pinardon-Touati.To learn more about the Initiative in Sustainable Finance (ISF), visit ISF's website (⁠https://www.fmg.ac.uk/isf⁠).

Dr Xi Li discusses her research on coordinated shareholder engagement through the UN PRI. She explains why engagements with a clear leader are more likely to succeed, what makes effective leaders, and how collaboration pays off—both in impact and fund flows.Host: Tom GoslingContributor: Dr Xi Li Read Dr Xi Li's paper, Coordinated Engagements co-authored with Elroy Dimson and Oğuzhan KarakaşTo learn more about the Initiative in Sustainable Finance (ISF), visit ISF's website (https://www.fmg.ac.uk/isf).

Tom Gosling speaks with Professor Dirk Jenter about what investors really believe about sustainability, how the constraints they face shape decisions, and why most aren’t willing to trade returns for impact. A candid look at the limits of sustainable investing today. Read Professor Dirk Jenter's paper 'Sustainable Investing in Practice: Objectives, Constraints, and Limits to Impact', co-authored with Alex Edmans and Tom Gosling. (https://www.fmg.ac.uk/isf/publications/discussion-papers/sustainable-investing-practice-objectives-constraints-and-limits)Host: Tom Gosling (https://www.fmg.ac.uk/people/tom-gosling)Contributor: Professor Dirk Jenter (https://www.fmg.ac.uk/people/dirk-jenter)To learn more about the Initiative in Sustainable Finance (ISF), visit ISF's website (⁠https://www.fmg.ac.uk/isf⁠) .

Host: Tom GoslingContributor: Martin OehmkeTom Gosling interviews Professor Martin Oehmke on how bank capital rules might integrate climate risks. They debate whether rules can be used to incentivize green lending—or whether this would backfire—and why capital requirements can't play the same role as a carbon tax.Read Professor Martin Oehmke's paper Green Capital Requirements To learn more about the Initiative in Sustainable Finance (ISF), visit ISF's website.