# ESG shareholder engagement and downside risk

“ESG shareholder engagement and downside risk” (2023), by Andreas G. F. Hoepner et al. Business and Management research paper. Original abstract below, unchanged. No free PDF was found.

- Authors: Andreas G. F. Hoepner, Ioannis Oikonomou, Zacharias Sautner, Laura T. Starks, Xiao Y. Zhou
- Published: October 3, 2023
- Field: Business and Management
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/rof/rfad034
- Source: https://doi.org/10.1093/rof/rfad034

## Abstract

We show that engagement on environmental, social, and governance issues can benefit shareholders by reducing firms’ downside risks. We find that the risk reductions (measured using value at risk [VaR] and lower partial moments) vary across engagement types and success rates. Engagement is most effective in lowering downside risk when addressing environmental topics (primarily climate change). Further, targets with large downside risk reductions exhibit a decrease in environmental incidents after the engagement. We estimate that the VaR of engagement targets decreases by 9 percent of the standard deviation after successful engagements, relative to control firms.

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