ESG - Environmental, Social and Governance

ESG: Myths and Realities - Collected Essays

— Oct 18, 2024

ESG: Myths and Realities is a collected essay series, edited by Fraser Institute Senior Fellow Steven Globerman, that provides a wide-ranging assessment of the environmental, social and governance movement—known as ESG. Among other considerations, the essays identify and consider the myriad issues that arise when publicly traded companies are directed by government legislation and regulations, or pressured by interest groups, to adopt a broad stakeholder framework rather than a shareholder (or investor) focused framework.

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It's Time to Move on from ESG (ESG: Myths and Realities)

— Aug 27, 2024

Two new essays in the Institute’s series on the myths and realities of the ESG movement, It’s Time to Move on from ESG and Putting Economics Back into ESG, find that imposing top-down ESG mandates will cause substantial harm to the economy and workers, and public policy objectives, such as those addressed by ESG initiatives, should be decided by and acted on by democratically elected governments, not private sector actors.

ESG Investing and Financial Returns in Canada (ESG: Myths and Realities)

— Jun 18, 2024

ESG Investing and Financial Returns in Canada finds that despite claims to the contrary, the ESG rankings of publicly-traded Canadian companies have no significant effect on investment returns.

ESG Disclosures and the Decision to Go Public (ESG: Myths and Realities)

— Jul 14, 2023

ESG Disclosures and the Decision to Go Public is a new essay in the Institute's series on the ESG (environmental, social and governance) movement. It highlights how mandating ESG disclosures could discourage firms from entering public markets, thereby limiting entrepreneurial opportunities by making one of the main channels for accessing capital more expensive.

Read the Essay - ESG Disclosures and the Decision to Go Public

Does Adopting a Stakeholder Model Undermine Corporate Governance? (ESG: Myths and Realities)

— Jul 7, 2023

Does Adopting a Stakeholder Model Undermine Corporate Governance? is the latest essay in the Institute's series on the ESG (environmental, social and governance) movement. It argues that corporate efficiency will suffer if managers depart from a shareholder governance framework and that the wealth created by companies that prioritize profitability, while operating in accordance with a well-defined legal and regulatory system, will better promote society's environmental and social goals than will be the case if companies adopt broad stakeholder governance models.

Read the Essay - Does Adopting a Stakeholder Model Undermine Corporate Governance?

ESG Mandates and Managerial Efficiency (ESG: Myths and Realities)

— Jul 7, 2023

ESG Mandates and Managerial Efficiency is a new essay from the Institute’s series on the ESG (environmental, social and governance) movement. Specifically, it addresses the question of whether regulation-imposed ESG mandates affect the principal relationship between shareholders and managers in public companies: are shareholders affected when a company’s management prioritizes ESG considerations over profit-enhancing decisions?

Read the Essay - ESG Mandates and Managerial Efficiency

Recent ESG - Environmental, Social and Governance Commentaries and Blog Posts

Corporate Canada betrayed capitalism. Now it has been betrayed

Bruce Pardy

Appeared in the National Post, July 4, 2024

Provisions in the recently passed Bill C-59 mean businesses cannot claim that their products or practices help to protect against climate change or provide other environmental benefits unless they can prove the claims are true.

Myth-busting will help accelerate ESG retreat

Matthew Lau

Many environmental and social problems are better handled by bottom-up market forces, not top-down initiatives.

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