Dumping stocks to punish bad corporate behavior has tiny impact

Investors that ditch companies with poor ESG standards in the hope of forcing them to do better should look away now: According to new research, you’re wasting your time.
 
Even as billions of dollars diverts toward firms scoring higher on environmental, social and governance measures, the funding costs for bad actors has hardly budged, a study has found.
 
It suggests that shifting behaviour in the corporate world is unlikely to be achieved by portfolio allocation — which has long been the dominant approach on Wall Street and beyond.
 
“A substantial increase in the amount of socially conscious