The contribution of the Asset Management Industry to Sustainable Development

Abstract

Socially investment (SI) has become one of the most prominent topics for researchers, business community, financial markets and society in recent years. The transition to a low carbon economy and the SDGs' framework demand the cooperation of the public and private sectors. The financial markets' role, specifically the asset management industry, is crucial to bridge the financing gap that the shift to a sustainable economy entails. This thesis aims to focus to a timely and urgent matter: how sustainable investment can have a major and more effective impact on sustainable development.

For this reason, this PhD dissertation intends to achieve this purpose focusing on the following research objectives:

• First, to understand how the mitigation of climate change and the 2030 Agenda are being incorporated into investment practices. • Second, to investigate which factors seem to be more decisive for asset managers in adopting more sophisticated and effective SI practices for the advancement of sustainable development. • Third, to know which SI investment strategies make a better contribution to sustainable development.

The present research combines the use of qualitative (e.g. systematic literature research and self- administered survey) and quantitative (e.g. logistic regression model and parametric tests) analysis techniques.

In Chapter One, in order to identify how sustainable investment contributes to sustainable development since the launch of the SDGs and the Paris Agreements, a systematic literature research was conducted.

In Chapter Two, a self- administered survey was designed to gather the information required to identify the main drivers for adopting advanced sustainable and responsible investment practices by asset management companies. Once the data was gathered, a linear probability model, namely, the logistic regression model, was used to analyze the influence of different factors on the asset managing industry.

In Chapter Three, to analyze which SI strategies or combinations of them allow practitioners to better manage ESG risks in ESG portfolios within a complete framework consistent with global challenges, a parametric analysis of variance method was adopted.

Finally, this thesis presents the major conclusions, contributions and lines for future research, followed by references and appendices.