Environmental social controls and capital investment: some recent Australian findings

Many countries rely on environmental social controls (ESCs) such as regulation, mandatory disclosure, and subsidies to encourage environmentally responsible capital investment. Additionally, stakeholder opinion is increasingly being used as an informal social control. However, little work has been carried out to indicate the relative influence of these ESCs on capital investment. This paper presents the key findings of a major Australian study into the influence of ESCs on the capital investment decision.