Research which presents a new way of comparing the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of countries’ economies has identified nations that are more likely to display sustainable economic leadership.
The study, ‘Social Capitalism: Taking a wider view of national progress’ from Edinburgh-based asset manager Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI), analysed economic data and the ESG scores for 135 countries and found 46 countries that were exceeding both their development-adjusted growth and ESG benchmarks.
The majority of the countries found to have exceeded their development ESG benchmarks were countries with developing economies.
The study concluded that these “social capitalist” countries are “prominent candidates to display sustainable economic development leadership over the next 20 years”.
ASI said it believes that mainstream macroeconomic growth analysis serving the investment community is “too narrow in scope, focused too much on short-term growth indicators and tended to fixate on large economies like the United States, Eurozone and China”.
Jeremy Lawson, head of the ASI Research Institute, said: “The most successful societies blend strong economies that have robust growth with healthy environments, inclusive social policies, representative political institutions and fair legal frameworks.
“To recognise this, we have built a new indicator of national progress for 135 countries that measures the extent to which they are persistently economically dynamic and making progress on meeting UN Sustainable Development aligned ESG goals.
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