Universal Ownership and the Polycrisis: Social Norms, Feedback Loops, and the Double Hermeneutic

51 Pages Posted: 28 May 2020 Last revised: 16 May 2023

Date Written: May 21, 2020

Abstract

The events of the early 2020s have exposed many of the environmental and social systemic risks that threaten the health and wellbeing of people and the environment. Through an exploration of the relevant evidence and theory, this paper lays out some of the systemic risks the Covid-19 pandemic and its continuing aftermath have revealed; quantifies the opportunity for long-term asset owners – universal owners – to counter these risks at the company level; identifies shifting norms; and examines the ways in which norms in the financial system emerge, take hold, and even become self-fulfilling. Having done so, the paper then tests universal ownership theory against two established norm formation frameworks while proposing the addition of a “momentum/velocity” condition to the existing norm formation theories. Following Marti & Gond’s pathway towards self-fulfilling theories, it ends by puts forward four experiments for asset owners to test whether universal ownership theory could become self-fulfilling, including an experiment that recommends implementation of an Advance Notice of Future Litigation that allows litigation for future harms to be priced into the market in the present. Our findings suggest that universal ownership has the potential to become a self-reinforcing norm in the financial sector, and therefore that universal owners may be capable of helping to mitigate the emerging polycrisis.

Keywords: Universal ownership, climate change, Covid-19, inequality, double hermeneutic, feedback loops, social norms, responsible investment

JEL Classification: A13, A14, E02, E12, E21, E24, E44, E62, F55, F64, F65, F66, G01, G02, G11, G12, G15, G18, G23, G28,

Suggested Citation

Quigley, Ellen, Universal Ownership and the Polycrisis: Social Norms, Feedback Loops, and the Double Hermeneutic (May 21, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3612928 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3612928

Ellen Quigley (Contact Author)

University of Cambridge ( email )

Trinity Ln
Cambridge, CB2 1TN
United Kingdom

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
616
Abstract Views
4,011
Rank
90,694
PlumX Metrics