1st Edition

The Routledge Handbook of Responsible Investment

    764 Pages 58 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    764 Pages 58 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment initiative has led to around a third of the world’s financial assets being managed with a commitment to invest in a way that considers environmental, social or governance (ESG) criteria. The responsible investment trend has increased dramatically since the global financial crisis, yet understanding of this field remains at an early stage.

    This handbook provides an atlas of current practice in the field of responsible investment. With a large global team of expert contributors, the book explores the impact of responsible investment on key financial actors ranging from mainstream asset managers to religious organizations.

    Offering students and researchers a comprehensive introduction to current scholarship and international structures in the expanding discipline of responsible investment, this handbook is vital reading across the fields of finance, economics and accounting.

    1. Introduction to the Routledge Handbook of Responsible Investment (Tessa Hebb, James P. Hawley, Andreas G.F. Hoepner, Agnes L. Neher and David Wood)

    2. Setting the Scene: The Basics and Basis of Responsible Investment (James P. Hawley)

    3. Is Responsible Investment Proportionally Under-Researched? (Andreas G. F. Hoepner, David McMillan, and Michael Fraser)

    4. The Responsible Investment Atlas – An Introduction (Agnes Lucia Neher and Tessa Hebb)

    5. Responsible Investment in the United States (Meg Voorhes)

    6. Responsible Investment in Canada (Olaf Weber)

    7. Responsible Investment in Mexico (Luisa Montes Ecovalores)

    8. Responsible Investment in South America (Camila Yamahaki and Cinthia S. Gaban)

    9. Responsible Investment in South Africa (Suzette Viviers and Nadia Mans-Kemp)

    10. Responsible Investment in Nigeria (Innocent Okwuosa und Kenneth Amaeshi)

    11. Responsible Investment in Tunisia (Kais Bouslah)

    12. Responsible Investment in Israel: A case of regulatory-based development (Noga Levtzion Nadan)

    13. Responsible Investment in Australia (Anna Young-Ferris and Louise O’Halloran)

    14. Responsible Investment in China (Qian Li)

    15. Responsible Investment in Hong Kong (Christine Chow)

    16. Responsible Investment in Japan: A tale of two narratives (Kyoko Sakuma-Keck)

    17. Responsible Investment in Russia (Yulia Sofronova)

    18. Responsible Investment in Eastern Europe (Geoffrey Mazullo)

    19. Corporate Social Responsibility and Responsible Investment in Italy: An overview (Rocco Ciciretti, Annalisa Fabretti and Marco Nicolosi)

    20. Responsible Investment in Spain (Luiz Ferruz Agudo, Jesus Gomez Daza and Sara Segura Querol)

    21. Responsible Investment in France (Stéphanie Giamporcaro)

    22. Responsible Investment in Austria, Germany and Switzerland (Agnes L. Neher)

    23. Responsible Investment in Belgium (Céline Louche, Luc Van Liedekerke and Herwig Peeters)

    24. Responsible Investment in the Netherlands (Heather Hachigan)

    25. Introduction into Scandinavia (Ane Jensen)

    26. Responsible Investment in Denmark: Practices among institutional investors in a context of statutory CSR reporting requirements (Karin Buhman)

    27. Responsible Investment in Finland (Antti Savilaakso)

    28. Responsible Investment in Sweden (Sabina Du Rietz)

    29. Responsible Investment in Norway (Ane Jensen)

    30. Responsible Investment in the United Kingdom (Christoph Biehl and Jill Atkins)

    31. Reflections: Responsible investing around the World (Maria Tinelli)

    32. The Changing Role of Asset Owners in Responsible Investment: Reflections on the principles for responsible investment – the last decade and the next (James Gifford)

    33. The Responsible Investment Practices of the World’s Largest Government Sponsored Investment Funds (Hugues Létourneau)

    34. Determining How to Invest More Responsibly as an Institution: A case study at the University of Edinburgh (Liz Cooper)

    35. Religious Investors and Responsible Investment (Laura Berry)

    36. Stakeholders of Responsible Investment: Retail investors (Jonas Nilsson)

    37. Measuring the Impact of Engagement: Evidence from Canadian institutional investors (Tessa Hebb, Heather Hachigian and Rupert Allen)

    38. Asset Manager Stakeholders: At the heart of supply and demand in responsible investment (Jean-Philippe Desmartin)

    39. Stakeholder Perspective: Investment consultants, the need to collaborate to ensure supply meets demand (Danyelle Guyatt)

    40. Responsible Investment Indexes: Origins, nature and purpose (Steve Lydenberg and Alexi White)

    41. Challenges in Responsible Investment Research (Matthew Haigh)

    42. The Natural Environment (Ralf Barkemeyer and Andrea Liesen)

    43. What do we mean by the S in ESG? Society as a stakeholder in responsible investment (David Wood)

    44. Corporate Governance Research and Ratings Firms (Kimberly Gladman)

    45. Contemporary Issues in Responsible Finance and Investment (Bert Scholtens)

    46. Addressing the Challenges of Transformation through Sustainable Investment (Gordon Clark, Heather Hachigian, Sarah McGill, Claire Molinari and Dariusz Wójcik)

    47. Overcoming Distractions on the Road to ESG Integration (Cary Krosinsky)

    48. Reliable Sustainability Ratings: The influence of business models on information intermediaries (Robert G. Eccles, Jock Herron and George Serafeim)

    49. Reclaiming Pension Fund Fiduciary Duty Fundamentals (James P. Hawley, Keith Johnson, Ed Waitzer)

    50. Governing Fiduciary Finance (Benjamin J. Richardson)

    51. Socially Responsible Screening in Mutual Funds (Jacquelyn Humphrey)

    52. Beyond Outreach: CSR and the financial performance of microfinance institutions (Andreas G. F. Hoepner, Guan Huang and Hong (Frank) Liu)

    53. Financial Markets Inefficiencies and Long Term Investments (Sebastien Pouget)

    54. What Matters to SRI Investors? (Peer Osthoff)

    Biography

    Tessa Hebb is Director of the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation and Adjunct Professor at Carleton University, Canada.

    James P. Hawley is Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Elfenworks Center for the Study of Responsible Business at Saint Mary’s College of California, USA.

    Andreas G. F. Hoepner is Associate Professor of Finance at the ICMA Centre of Henley Business School, UK and Senior Academic Fellow at the United Nations supported Principles for Responsible Investment.

    Agnes L. Neher is a PhD candidate at the University of Hohenheim, Germany

    David Wood is Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy and the Director of the Initiative for Responsible Investment (IRI) at the Hauser Institute for Civil Society at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA

    'We are all immensely lucky that The Routledge Handbook of Responsible Investment has been published. This is the book that everyone interested in a field hopes will be available and, all too often, isn’t. It contains insightful, well edited, articles by the leading authority in each specialty comprising the field of Responsible Investment. The scale and quality of this book is so obvious that no one concerned with Responsible Investment can fail to read it - Buy the book and enjoy it like a superb feast.' - Robert A.G. Monks, Chairman, ValueEdge Advisors, USA

    'Comprehensive and very timely, this handbook provides helpful insight and analysis on the geographical reach and significance of what is becoming a global movement in responsible and sustainable investment.' - Colin Melvin, Chief Executive Officer, Hermes Investment Management, UK

    'The compendium section is followed by 23 essays. They look at responsible investment from the perspective of stakeholders who are affected, for example, asset managers, government-sponsored investment funds, religious investors, retail investors, and so on. The collection includes studies from well-known researchers who examine emerging issues. While they are learned scholars in the field, their writings are accessible and engaging[...]This compilation goes further than any before it to identify the obstacles and chart the most promising paths to change'
    Victor House News Co. USA