ESG - Environmental, Social and Governance

— Jan 20, 2023
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ESG Is Mainly Top-Down Planning by Elites

ESG Is Mainly Top-Down Planning by Elites is a new essay in the Institute’s series on the Environmental, Social and Governance movement. In it, adjunct scholar Matt Lau details how the refocus of business and financial activity toward ESG concerns has been pushed from above by government bodies and politically powerful organizations at the expense of individual investors.

— Jan 12, 2023
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ESG is Corporate Socialism

ESG is Corporate Socialism is the latest installment in the Institute’s series on the Environmental, Social and Governance movement. It details how ESG undermines the duty of business executives to act in the best interests of the corporation, and in so doing, actually undermines capitalism itself.

— Nov 29, 2022
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Corporate Philanthropy: Stay in Your Lane

Corporate Philanthropy: Stay in Your Lane, the latest installment from the Fraser Institute’s essay series on the ESG movement, finds that corporate charitable giving—driven by ESG—could produce more harm than good when it comes to overall charitable donations.

— Nov 24, 2022
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Market Forces Already Address ESG and “Stakeholder Capitalism” Concerns

Market Forces Already Address ESG and “Stakeholder Capitalism” Concerns is a new essay in the Institute’s ongoing series on ESG investing that spotlights how competitive forces including contracts negotiated among a firm’s stakeholders and consumer preferences work better to address the issues raised by proponents of stakeholder capitalism and ESG than top-down government regulations.

— Nov 24, 2022
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The Fallacies Undermining Energy Security

The Fallacies Undermining Energy Security is a new essay in the Institute’s series on ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing that highlights how important it is for Canada and the world to increase the supply of oil and gas, but how doing so is currently hampered by unrealistic government climate policies and regulations.

— Oct 18, 2022
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ESG Investing and Asset Returns

ESG: Myths and Realities is a new essay series that highlights the misunderstandings and simplifications of Environmental, Social and Governance investing—ESG investing for short. This third essay, ESG Investing and Asset Returns, finds that, according to a broad review of existing research, there's no conclusive evidence that investing in companies with higher ESG rankings produces higher returns for investors. Therefore, there’s also no conclusive evidence to suggest that a more expansive ESG reporting regime, mandated by government in Ottawa or elsewhere, will produce benefits to investors or society more broadly.

— Aug 23, 2022
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Friedman and His ESG Critics

ESG: Myths and Realities is a new essay series that highlights the misunderstandings and simplifications of Environmental, Social and Governance investing—ESG investing for short. The second essay, Friedman and His ESG Critics, revisits Nobel laureate Milton Friedman’s iconic 1970 article in the New York Times, which argued that the sole responsibility of business is to increase profits, and that it is misguided to expect managers of businesses to try to achieve broad public policy objectives.

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