Sprott’s Isaac Otchere receives SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant to examine the impact of sustainable investing on pensions

Isaac Otchere, Professor of Finance at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business has been awarded the Partnership Engage Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in the December 2021 competition.

Isaac’s research project, Sustainable Investing and Sustainability of Pension Funds, will investigate how the movement towards sustainable and ethical investing is affecting pension assets. Isaac will be working with CBC Pension on this research.

As this has not yet been empirically studied, this research will fill the gap in the literature by examining the impact of ethical investing on the growth and sustainability of pension assets. As countries around the world deal with rising climate risks and concerns around sustainability, a growing number of pension funds have integrated sustainable investing principles in their investment decisions. Given their size, and the fact that they are long-term investors, many have looked to pension funds for leadership in the field of socially responsible investing.

This research will be the first study to provide a comprehensive analysis of the effects of ethical and socially responsible investing decisions by pension funds. The results of this study will inform evidence-based policy making and would be valuable to CBC Pension, other pension fund administrators as well the Federal and Provincial governments about the effectiveness of their socially responsible investing mandate.

SSHRC’s Partnership Engage Grant provides support for partnered research activities that will inform decision-making at a partner organization from the public, private or not-for-profit sector. The small-scale, stakeholder-driven partnerships are meant to respond to immediate needs facing organizations in non-academic sectors and enable these organizations and postsecondary researchers access to each other’s unique knowledge, expertise and capabilities on topics of mutual interest.