Current projects

Making Finance Sustainable? A Comparative Perspective on the Politics of Investment (NWO-VIDI)

This project takes a comparative political economy approach to study the effects of governance on sustainable investment by large investors like insurance companies and pension funds. Sustainable investment involves the application of environmental criteria to financial investments. Despite increased policy interventions and political activism around sustainable investment, however, large investors have yet to realize the goal stated in the 2015 Paris Agreement: making “finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate resilient development” (Article 2.1 sub c). Bringing comparative political economy into conversation with economic and sociological studies of sustainable investment, the project seeks to understand how different types of political economies, each with their own institutional characteristics and modes of governance, produce distinct sustainable investment outcomes. Taking an actor-centered institutionalist approach, we investigate governance at three distinct levels: the macro-organisation of the political economy, financial policy-making processes, and the micro-level governance of the investment process.

Project duration: 2023-2028

Completed projects

The Democratic Legitimacy of Funded Pension Schemes (NORFACE)

In this NORFACE-funded research project, research teams in 4 countries (Austria, Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands) will explore the democratic governance of capital-funded occupational pension schemes. We adopt Scharpf’s distinction between input legitimacy (are collectively binding decisions in line with citizens’ democratically expressed preferences?) and output legitimacy (do collectively binding decisions serve the common interests of the citizens?) to investigate how governments, regulators and labour market actors govern funded pensions (input legitimacy) and whether participants are satisfied with pension fund performance (output legitimacy). The project focuses on Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Ireland and Spain, because the structure of funded pension provision varies along key dimensions relevant to input and output legitimacy. The project combines quantitative analysis of survey data with comparative case studies based on elite and expert interviews and analysis of primary and secondary documents.

Project duration: 2020-2024

Sustainability through occupational pension schemes?
The influence of codetermination actors on investment strategies (Hans-Böckler-Stiftung)

In this project funded by the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, research teams in three countries will study how codetermination actors can influence sustainable investments in occupational pension schemes. The project therefore analyzes a) what influence actors of co-determination have on investments in occupational pension schemes, b) to what extent they take into account socio-ecological aspects and c) whether the preferences expressed at the beginning of the investment chain match the final investment. Answers to this are particularly relevant for Germany in view of the increasing importance of occupational pension schemes. The comparison with the Netherlands and Denmark – both countries with quasi-universal occupational pensions, strong trade union influence and substantial sustainable investments – provides important insights and recommendations for political actors in Germany.

Project duration: 2021-2023