IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/rfinst/v39y2026i1p30-78..html

The Pace of Change: Socially Responsible Investing in Private Markets

Author

Listed:
  • Deeksha Gupta
  • Alexandr Kopytov
  • Jan Starmans

Abstract

We show that socially responsible investors can have a negative impact by slowing the pace of firm reform. Investors with broad prosocial preferences value acquiring dirty firms with high negative production externalities because they can reform these firms. The anticipation of trading gains for dirty firms decreases the incentive of current firm owners to reduce externalities proactively, potentially causing delay in reform. The presence of financial investors—alongside socially responsible investors—can exacerbate delay. Investment mandates through which socially responsible investors commit to paying a premium for green firms can incentivize reform in a timely manner.

Suggested Citation

  • Deeksha Gupta & Alexandr Kopytov & Jan Starmans, 2026. "The Pace of Change: Socially Responsible Investing in Private Markets," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 39(1), pages 30-78.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:rfinst:v:39:y:2026:i:1:p:30-78.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/rfs/hhaf083
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Davies, Shaun William & Van Wesep, Edward Dickersin, 2018. "The unintended consequences of divestment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(3), pages 558-575.
    2. Davidson Heath & Daniele Macciocchi & Roni Michaely & Matthew C. Ringgenberg, 2023. "Does Socially Responsible Investing Change Firm Behavior?," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 27(6), pages 2057-2083.
    3. Beccherle, Julien & Tirole, Jean, 2011. "Regional initiatives and the cost of delaying binding climate change agreements," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(11), pages 1339-1348.
    4. Hart, Oliver & Moore, John, 1990. "Property Rights and the Nature of the Firm," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(6), pages 1119-1158, December.
    5. Cho, In-Koo, 1987. "A Refinement of Sequential Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(6), pages 1367-1389, November.
    6. Jean Tirole & Roland Bénabou, 2006. "Incentives and Prosocial Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1652-1678, December.
    7. Maija Halonen-Akatwijuka & Evagelos Pafilis, 2009. "Reputation and Ownership of Public Goods," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 09/211, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    8. Bengt Holmstrom & Jean Tirole, 1997. "Financial Intermediation, Loanable Funds, and The Real Sector," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(3), pages 663-691.
    9. Heinkel, Robert & Kraus, Alan & Zechner, Josef, 2001. "The Effect of Green Investment on Corporate Behavior," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(4), pages 431-449, December.
    10. 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.
    11. Allen,Franklin & Barbalau,Adelina & Zeni,Federica, 2023. "Reducing Carbon using Regulatory and Financial Market Tools," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10539, The World Bank.
    12. Grossman, Sanford J & Hart, Oliver D, 1986. "The Costs and Benefits of Ownership: A Theory of Vertical and Lateral Integration," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(4), pages 691-719, August.
    13. David P. Baron, 2007. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Entrepreneurship," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(3), pages 683-717, September.
    14. Shawn Cole & Leslie Jeng & Josh Lerner & Natalia Rigol & Benjamin N. Roth, 2023. "What Do Impact Investors Do Differently?," NBER Working Papers 31898, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Martin Oehmke & Marcus M Opp, 2025. "A Theory of Socially Responsible Investment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 92(2), pages 1193-1225.
    16. Schmitz, Patrick W., 2012. "Public goods and the hold-up problem under asymmetric information," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 642-645.
    17. Anna Kovner & Josh Lerner, 2015. "Doing Well by Doing Good? Community Development Venture Capital," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 643-663, September.
    18. Mitchell A. Petersen & Raghuram G. Rajan, 1995. "The Effect of Credit Market Competition on Lending Relationships," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(2), pages 407-443.
    19. Luo, H. Arthur & Balvers, Ronald J., 2017. "Social Screens and Systematic Investor Boycott Risk," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(1), pages 365-399, February.
    20. Hart, Oliver D. & Zingales, Luigi, 2017. "Companies Should Maximize Shareholder Welfare Not Market Value," Working Papers 267, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    21. Doron Levit & Nadya Malenko & Ernst Maug, 2024. "Trading and Shareholder Democracy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 79(1), pages 257-304, February.
    22. Berk, Jonathan B. & van Binsbergen, Jules H., 2025. "The impact of impact investing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    23. Itay Goldstein & Alexandr Kopytov & Lin Shen & Haotian Xiang, 2022. "On ESG Investing: Heterogeneous Preferences, Information, and Asset Prices," NBER Working Papers 29839, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    24. 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.
    25. Wolfgang Buchholz & Kai Konrad, 1994. "Global environmental problems and the strategic choice of technology," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 299-321, October.
    26. Geczy, Christopher & Jeffers, Jessica S. & Musto, David K. & Tucker, Anne M., 2021. "Contracts with (Social) benefits: The implementation of impact investing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 697-718.
    27. Steven D. Baker & Burton Hollifield & Emilio Osambela, 2022. "Asset Prices and Portfolios with Externalities [Pricedetermination in the EU ETS market: theory and econometric analysis with market fundamentals]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(6), pages 1433-1468.
    28. Philipp Krueger & Zacharias Sautner & Laura T Starks, 2020. "The Importance of Climate Risks for Institutional Investors," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(3), pages 1067-1111.
    29. Nickolay Gantchev & Mariassunta Giannetti & Rachel Li, 2022. "Does Money Talk? Divestitures and Corporate Environmental and Social Policies [The “Wall Street Walk” and Shareholder Activism: Exit as a Form of Voice]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(6), pages 1469-1508.
    30. Pierre-Olivier Weill, 2020. "The Search Theory of Over-the-Counter Markets," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 12(1), pages 747-773, August.
    31. Patrick Bolton & Marcin Kacperczyk, 2023. "Global Pricing of Carbon‐Transition Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 78(6), pages 3677-3754, December.
    32. Jiasun Li & William Mann, 2025. "Digital Tokens and Platform Building," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 38(7), pages 1921-1954.
    33. 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.
    34. 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.
    35. Pástor, Ľuboš & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2021. "Sustainable investing in equilibrium," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 550-571.
    36. John Morgan & Justin Tumlinson, 2019. "Corporate Provision of Public Goods," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(10), pages 4489-4504, October.
    37. Tiziano De Angelis & Peter Tankov & Olivier David Zerbib, 2023. "Climate Impact Investing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(12), pages 7669-7692, December.
    38. Jeffers, Jessica & Lyu, Tianshu & Posenau, Kelly, 2024. "The risk and return of impact investing funds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Dangl, Thomas & Halling, Michael & Yu, Jin & Zechner, Josef, 2025. "Social preferences and corporate investment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    2. Li, Suyang & Qiao, Lu & Ren, Boru & Wang, Zilong, 2025. "Financing sustainability: Sustainable institutional investors and bank loan access," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    3. Ferreira, Daniel & Nikolowa, Radoslawa, 2025. "Polarization, purpose and profit," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 128848, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Ferreira, Daniel & Nikolowa, Radoslawa, 2025. "Polarization, purpose and profit," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    5. Berle, Erika & He, Wanwei (Angela) & Ødegaard, Bernt Arne, 2025. "The stock market and corporate consequences of ethical exclusions by the world’s largest fund," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    6. Sachdeva, Kunal & Silva, André F. & Slutzky, Pablo & Xu, Billy Y., 2025. "Defunding controversial industries: Can targeted credit rationing choke firms?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    7. Heeb, Florian & Kölbel, Julian & Weder, Camilla, 2025. "Beliefs about the climate impact of green investing," SAFE Working Paper Series 463, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    8. Accetturo, Antonio & Barboni, Giorgia & Cascarano, Michele & Garcia-Appendini, Emilia & Tomasi, Marco, 2022. "Credit supply and green Investments," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 615, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    9. Allen, Franklin & Barbalau, Adelina, 2024. "Security design: A review," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    10. Döttling, Robin & Rola-Janicka, Magdalena, 2025. "Too Levered for Pigou: Carbon pricing, financial constraints, and leverage regulation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    11. Sébastien Pouget & Daniel Brodback & Nadja Guenster & Ruichen Wang, 2025. "Investor Valuation for Socially Responsible Assets: A Willingness to Pay Experiment," Post-Print hal-05327492, HAL.
    12. Cartellier, Fanny & Tankov, Peter & Zerbib, Olivier David, 2025. "Can investors curb greenwashing?," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    13. Okimoto, Tatsuyoshi & Takaoka, Sumiko, 2024. "Credit default swaps and corporate carbon emissions in Japan," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    14. Janz, Catharina & Rilke, Rainer Michael & Burcin Yurtoglu, B., 2025. "Does ESG information impact individual investors’ portfolio choices?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    15. Pouget, Sébastien & Brodback, Daniel & Guenster, Nadja & Wang, Ruichen, 2025. "Investor Valuation for Socially Responsible Assets: A Willingness to Pay Experiment," TSE Working Papers 2025-1683, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    16. Emilio Marti & Martin Fuchs & Mark R. DesJardine & Rieneke Slager & Jean‐Pascal Gond, 2024. "The Impact of Sustainable Investing: A Multidisciplinary Review," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(5), pages 2181-2211, July.
    17. Konark Saxena & Mandeep Singh, 2024. "Investors reward countries for participating in climate agreements," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    18. Michele Fioretti & Victor Saint-Jean & Simon C. Smith, 2021. "The Shared Costs of Pursuing Shareholder Values," Papers 2103.12138, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2026.
    19. Pástor, Ľuboš & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2021. "Sustainable investing in equilibrium," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 550-571.
    20. Aragon, George O. & Jiang, Yuxiang & Joenväärä, Juha & Tiu, Cristian Ioan, 2025. "Responsible investing: Costs and benefits for university endowment funds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • 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
    • G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility

    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:oup:rfinst:v:39:y:2026:i:1:p:30-78.. 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sfsssea.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.