The Impact of Climate Engagement: A Field Experiment

Florian Heeb and Julian F Kölbel
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Florian Heeb: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management
Julian F Kölbel: University of St. Gallen - School of Finance; MIT Sloan; Swiss Finance Institute

No 24-04, Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series from Swiss Finance Institute

Abstract: We report results from a pre-registered field experiment about the impact of index provider engagement on corporate climate policy. A randomly chosen group of 300 out of 1227 international companies received a letter from an index provider, encouraging the company to commit to setting a science-based climate target to remain included in its climate transition benchmark indices. After one year, we observed a significant effect: 21.0% of treated companies have committed, vs. 15.7% in the control group. This suggests that engagement by financial institutions can affect corporate policies when a feasible request is combined with a credible threat of exit.

Keywords: Shareholder Engagement; Field Experiment; Climate; ESG; Activism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D22 D62 G23 G34 M14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2024-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env, nep-exp and nep-res
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp2404

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