Speaker: Augustin Landier (HEC Paris)

Chair: Amil Dasgupta (FMG & LSE Finance)

Fourth lecture in the Sir Oliver Hart Lecture Series

Sustainable investing has several distinct ambitions: aligning portfolios with investors’ values, changing corporate behaviour, and delivering competitive financial returns. Yet these aims may pull in opposite directions. They require different strategies, and success on one dimension may imply giving up on another. Drawing on experimental evidence and economic theory, this talk asks what responsible investors actually seek, how financial institutions aggregate their preferences, and when divestment, engagement or conditional financing can alter corporate decisions. It examines how far private finance can generate genuine social and environmental impact – and where public policy remains indispensable.