Et forskningsdokument fra professorer Soohun Kim og Aaron Yoon (Georgia Institute of Technology og Northwestern University) stiller kritiske spørgsmål til bidraget fra FN’s PRI-medlemmer til den faktiske udvikling af ESG-investeringer og bæredygtighedsdagsordenen i det hele taget. Kim og Yoon hævder, at den største fordel ved medlemskab af FNs PRI er den øgede kapitalstrøm snarere end at forbedrede ESG-resultater:
We analyze active managers’ commitment to ESG using United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), which is the largest global initiative to incorporate ESG. We find a significant increase in fund flow to signatory funds regardless of their prior fund-level ESG score. However, signatories do not improve fund-level ESG score while exhibiting a decrease in return. Further, they vote less on environmental issues and stocks in their portfolio experience increased environmental controversies. Funds that are smaller, younger, and had higher historical alpha are more likely to sign PRI but only quant-driven and institution-only funds improve ESG post signing. Overall, only a small number of funds improve ESG while many others use the PRI status to attract capital without making notable changes to ESG.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3555984
