{"title":"Universal Owner and Impact of Its Engagement Program: An Analysis of Engagement Records of Japan's GPIF","authors":"Masahiro Shibata, Kazunori Suzuki","doi":"10.1111/irfi.70068","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Using 26,792 GPIF engagements across 21 funds (2017–2022), we provide empirical evidence on institutional investor stewardship effectiveness. Through propensity score matching and difference-in-differences analysis, we find that climate engagements significantly reduce greenhouse gas intensity and improve firm valuation, while governance engagements enhance shareholder returns, increase board independence, and reduce cross-shareholdings. Engagements target large-cap companies with lower controlling ownership. Our findings demonstrate that Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund, as a universal owner, drives measurable improvements in corporate governance, sustainability, and financial performance through structured asset manager engagements with investee companies.</p>","PeriodicalId":46664,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Finance","volume":"26 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2026-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/irfi.70068","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Review of Finance","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/irfi.70068","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BUSINESS, FINANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Using 26,792 GPIF engagements across 21 funds (2017–2022), we provide empirical evidence on institutional investor stewardship effectiveness. Through propensity score matching and difference-in-differences analysis, we find that climate engagements significantly reduce greenhouse gas intensity and improve firm valuation, while governance engagements enhance shareholder returns, increase board independence, and reduce cross-shareholdings. Engagements target large-cap companies with lower controlling ownership. Our findings demonstrate that Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund, as a universal owner, drives measurable improvements in corporate governance, sustainability, and financial performance through structured asset manager engagements with investee companies.
期刊介绍：
The International Review of Finance (IRF) publishes high-quality research on all aspects of financial economics, including traditional areas such as asset pricing, corporate finance, market microstructure, financial intermediation and regulation, financial econometrics, financial engineering and risk management, as well as new areas such as markets and institutions of emerging market economies, especially those in the Asia-Pacific region. In addition, the Letters Section in IRF is a premium outlet of letter-length research in all fields of finance. The length of the articles in the Letters Section is limited to a maximum of eight journal pages.
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