| dc.description.abstract | This paper assesses whether institutional ownership impacts the environmental, social, and
governance (ESG) performance of firms worldwide. To study this issue, we analyze financial
metrics and ESG scores on 5444 companies owned by the Government Pension Fund Global
managed by Norges Bank Investment Management. Our findings reveal that the ESG score of
companies owned by NBIM is significantly higher than that of the average of all companies
in the Refinitiv database. However, further analysis indicates that NBIM ownership has no
statistically significant effect on ESG performance. The effect of exclusion by NBIM on the
ESG score of a company is also insignificant according to our analysis. This implies that
NBIM screens firms for ESG performance to display their commitment to sustainability. We
theorize that the observed results could be attributed to inadequate ownership stakes, thereby
restricting NBIM’s impact on company ESG scores. | en_US |
