IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/kob/dpaper/dp2021-20.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Socially Responsible Investment: Ex-ante Contracting or Ex-post Bargaining?

Author

Listed:
  • Meg Adachi-Sato

    (Faculty of Business Administration and Accountancy, Khon Kaen University, THAILAND and Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Kobe University, JAPAN)

Abstract

This paper shows how a socially and environmentally aware firm principal can motivate a profit-oriented manager to pursue positive environmental, social, and governance (ESG) outcomes. In the model, the manager produces a verifiable output that is detrimental to ESG but also engages in an unverifiable output that promotes ESG. I show that an ex-post bargaining contract is preferred to an ex-ante commitment contract if the unverifiable output substantially improves ESG or if there is a large negative externality. The paper also demonstrates how social impact bonds can be more effective than short-term debt when used to finance social programs.

Suggested Citation

  • Meg Adachi-Sato, 2021. "Socially Responsible Investment: Ex-ante Contracting or Ex-post Bargaining?," Discussion Paper Series DP2021-20, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, revised Feb 2023.
    • Handle: RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2021-20
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rieb.kobe-u.ac.jp/academic/ra/dp/English/DP2021-20.pdf
    File Function: Revised version, 2023
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fudenberg, Drew & Holmstrom, Bengt & Milgrom, Paul, 1990. "Short-term contracts and long-term agency relationships," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 1-31, June.
    2. Sunil Dutta & Stefan Reichelstein, 2003. "Leading Indicator Variables, Performance Measurement, and Long‐Term Versus Short‐Term Contracts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5), pages 837-866, December.
    3. Pástor, Ľuboš & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2021. "Sustainable investing in equilibrium," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 550-571.
    4. Bernheim, B Douglas & Whinston, Michael D, 1998. "Incomplete Contracts and Strategic Ambiguity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(4), pages 902-932, September.
    5. Hart, Oliver & Zingales, Luigi, 2017. "Companies Should Maximize Shareholder Welfare Not Market Value," Journal of Law, Finance, and Accounting, now publishers, vol. 2(2), pages 247-275, November.
    6. Opp, Marcus & Oehmke, Martin, 2020. "A theory of socially responsible investment," CEPR Discussion Papers 14351, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Daniel L. Tortorice & David E. Bloom & Paige Kirby & John Regan, 2020. "A Theory of Social Impact Bonds," NBER Working Papers 27527, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Bhagwan Chowdhry & Shaun William Davies & Brian Waters, 2019. "Investing for Impact," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(3), pages 864-904.
    9. Laux, Volker, 2012. "Stock option vesting conditions, CEO turnover, and myopic investment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(3), pages 513-526.
    10. Eleonora Broccardo & Oliver D. Hart & Luigi Zingales, 2020. "Exit vs. Voice," Working Papers 2020-114, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    11. Holmstrom, Bengt & Milgrom, Paul, 1991. "Multitask Principal-Agent Analyses: Incentive Contracts, Asset Ownership, and Job Design," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(0), pages 24-52, Special I.
    12. Mark V. Pauly, 2017. "Social Impact Bonds: New Product or New Package?," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 33(4), pages 718-760.
    13. John Morgan & Justin Tumlinson, 2019. "Corporate Provision of Public Goods," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(10), pages 4489-4504, October.
    14. Berry, Tammy K. & Bizjak, John M. & Lemmon, Michael L. & Naveen, Lalitha, 2006. "Organizational complexity and CEO labor markets: Evidence from diversified firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 797-817, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Meg Adachi-Sato & Hiroshi Osano, 2023. "Sustainable Investing Under Delegated Investment Management," Discussion Paper Series DP2023-01, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, revised Nov 2024.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Meg Adachi-Sato, 2021. "Contract Duration and Socially Responsible Investment," Discussion Paper Series DP2021-14, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
    2. Christian Gollier & Sébastien Pouget, 2022. "Investment Strategies and Corporate Behaviour with Socially Responsible Investors: A Theory of Active Ownership," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(356), pages 997-1023, October.
    3. Gillan, Stuart L. & Koch, Andrew & Starks, Laura T., 2021. "Firms and social responsibility: A review of ESG and CSR research in corporate finance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    4. Opp, Marcus & Oehmke, Martin, 2020. "A theory of socially responsible investment," CEPR Discussion Papers 14351, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Eleonora Broccardo & Oliver D. Hart & Luigi Zingales, 2020. "Exit vs. Voice," Working Papers 2020-114, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    6. Pedersen, Lasse Heje & Fitzgibbons, Shaun & Pomorski, Lukasz, 2021. "Responsible investing: The ESG-efficient frontier," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 572-597.
    7. Rodney Schmidt, 2023. "Are Business Ethics Effective? A Market Failures Approach to Impact Investing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 184(2), pages 505-524, May.
    8. Lazzarini,Sergio G., 2022. "The Right Privatization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781316519714, September.
    9. Anja Schöttner & Veikko Thiele, 2010. "Promotion Tournaments and Individual Performance Pay," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(3), pages 699-731, September.
    10. Brice Corgnet & Roberto Hernán-González, 2019. "Revisiting the Trade-off Between Risk and Incentives: The Shocking Effect of Random Shocks?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(3), pages 1096-1114, March.
    11. Sunil Dutta & Stefan Reichelstein, 2000. "Controlling Investment Decisions: Hurdle Rates and Intertemporal Cost Allocation," CESifo Working Paper Series 354, CESifo.
    12. Dirk Sliwka, 2007. "Trust as a Signal of a Social Norm and the Hidden Costs of Incentive Schemes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(3), pages 999-1012, June.
    13. Pástor, Ľuboš & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2021. "Sustainable investing in equilibrium," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 550-571.
    14. Michele Fioretti, 2022. "Caring or Pretending to Care? Social Impact, Firms' Objectives, and Welfare (former title: Social Responsibility and Firm's Objectives)," SciencePo Working papers hal-03393065, HAL.
    15. Sabac, Florin, 2008. "Dynamic incentives and retirement," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 172-200, September.
    16. Cohen, Shira & Kadach, Igor & Ormazabal, Gaizka & Reichelstein, Stefan, 2022. "Executive compensation tied to ESG performance: International evidence," ZEW Discussion Papers 22-051, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    17. Raith, Michael, 2012. "Optimal incentives and the time dimension of performance measurement," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 147(6), pages 2158-2189.
    18. Tomasz Obloj & Metin Sengul, 2020. "What do multiple objectives really mean for performance? Empirical evidence from the French manufacturing sector," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(13), pages 2518-2547, December.
    19. Pierre-André Chiappori & Bernard Salanié, 2002. "Testing Contract Theory : A Survey of Some Recent Work," Working Papers 2002-11, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    20. Oriana Bandiera, 1999. "On the Structure of Tenancy contracts: Theory and Evidence fron 19th Century Rural Sicily," STICERD - Development Economics Papers - From 2008 this series has been superseded by Economic Organisation and Public Policy Discussion Papers 19, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Socially responsible investment; ESG; Multitask; Holdup; Incomplete contracts; Social impact bonds;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D86 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Economics of Contract Law
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2021-20. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Office of Promoting Research Collaboration, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rikobjp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.