Research and Insights

A recent webinar co-hosted by the manager of the UK railways pension schemes, Railpen, and the Predistribution Initiative (PDI), themed "Perspectives on Workforce Directors – Opportunities & Challenges", explored the potential and hurdles of integrating workforce directors into corporate boards.

This paper, in which the Predistribution Initiative contributed, considers the different mechanisms through which socio-economic inequality can affect financial markets and the private sector, as well as the incentives for participants interested in reducing socio-economic inequality.

As part of the Sorenson Global Impact Leaders, our Executive Director, Delilah Rothenberg contributed to the "What’s Next in Impact?" report where thought leaders and impact practitioners share suggestions on how we can work together to achieve a sustainable, resilient, and thriving future.

There has been a growing cadence of convenings, panels and publications focused on scaling investment and financing strategies to build wealth and influence for workers and communities in impactful ways across North America. These strategies include a focus on shared ownership of enterprise, shared ownership of real assets, and individual ownership of assets. This report provides key takeaways from the Ownership Lens Investing Movement virtual convening.

In this write-up, Pensions for Purpose explores the Taskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures’ (TISFD) vision to foster stronger, more equitable societies, by integrating existing standards to provide a cohesive disclosure process for companies and investors, focusing on the economic and financial implications of inequality.

The time is now for moving from a financialized economy to one that supports real people everywhere, across both rural and urban communities, developed and developing countries, businesses of all sizes, and which produces products and services that sustain healthy, thriving societies. In this blog, we explore three broad overlooked contributors to inequality and how we might address them: (1) the structure of compensation; (2) market concentration; and (3) underpinning the first two issues, interpretations of risk, return, and value.

The Predistribution Initiative (PDI) partnered with Oxfam America and Omidyar Network on a new discussion paper, "Getting Ahead of the Curve on Dynamic Materiality: How U.S. investors can foster more inclusive capitalism." This paper is designed to support U.S. investors in understanding how sharing more wealth and influence with workers and communities can correct imbalances and support early identification and mitigation of emerging risks.

Remarks by our Executive Director, Delilah Rothenberg, during a meeting organized by the G20 in Brazil focused on the fight against hunger, poverty and inequality: "Relying on redistribution to continuously address socio-economic inequality can result in the disadvantaged being dependent on handouts from the rich. Instead of production resulting in vast imbalances in wealth and power which require continuous remedy, workers and communities could have similar opportunities as executives and investors to share in financial gains and influence over investments."

This report serves as a summary of the Advancing Financing Initiatives for Shared Ownership of Enterprise convening and includes key takeaways which can be used to inform next steps. Since the objectives for the day were robust and are likely to only be achieved through further activity and collaboration over time, program participants identified opportunities to continue the dialogue.

Rising inequalities both between and within countries are fuDiversified investors who sit at the top of the “capital markets value chain” – like pension funds, endowments, and sovereign wealth funds – have an incentive to reduce socio-economic inequality. Their portfolios are so broad across geographies, industries, and asset classes that their financial success is dependent on the health of the economy.

The paper -- "From Fragmentation to Integration: Embedding Social Issues in Sustainable Finance" -- aims to generate momentum within the financial system to tackle inequality and improve a common understanding of the social impacts of a market-based economy. It sheds light on how to catalyze action at the policy and regulatory levels through existing sustainable finance initiatives.

Forum for the Future, a non-profit that works in partnership with business, government, and civil society to accelerate the shift toward a sustainable future, published an exciting new report that builds on much of PDI’s work reimagining the way the financial system addresses systemic risks through the exploration on how to strengthen alignment between investment and stewardship teams, and how to integrate external data on externalities into investment analysis.