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Should Public Plans Engage in Social Investing?

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Author Info
Alicia H. Munnell (Center for Retirement Research, Boston College)
Abstract

Social investing is a movement that advocates incorporating social and environmental considerations, as well as financial factors, when making investment decisions. The most recent incarnation of this movement is the initiative by state legislatures to force public pension funds to sell their holdings of companies doing business in Sudan. The effort to divest Sudan-linked stocks began in 2004 after the U.S. government characterized the killing and displacement in Darfur province as genocide. Riding on the coattails of the success of the Sudan effort, state legislatures have now targeted Iran, with a goal of “terror-free” investing. The emotional appeal of such actions is powerful. Over 2 million civilians have been displaced and more than 200,000 slaughtered in Darfur since 2003. And Iran refuses to back away from its pursuit of nuclear weapons. But strong arguments also exist against using public pension plans to accomplish foreign policy goals...

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Paper provided by Center for Retirement Research in its series Issues in Brief with number ib2007-7-12.

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Length: 16 pages
Date of creation: Aug 2007
Date of revision: Aug 2007
Handle: RePEc:crr:issbrf:ib2007-7-12

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  1. Teoh, Siew Hong & Welch, Ivo & Wazzan, C Paul, 1999. "The Effect of Socially Activist Investment Policies on the Financial Markets: Evidence from the South African Boycott," Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 72(1), pages 35-89, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Olivia S. Mitchell & Roderick Carr, . "State and Local Pension Plans," Pension Research Council Working Papers 95-13, Wharton School Pension Research Council, University of Pennsylvania.
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