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In this Daily Signal article, Stephen Soukup argues that ESG investing was built in part on academic research that has failed the basic test of replication.
- Soukup compares ESG’s intellectual foundation to the broader “replication crisis,” in which major academic claims cannot be reproduced by other researchers.
- He cites concerns that fraud, plagiarism, and weak methodology have affected large portions of scientific and academic publishing.
- The article focuses on a major 2014 ESG-related paper claiming “high sustainability” companies outperform other companies over the long term.
- Soukup says that paper became one of the foundational studies used to justify ESG investing, corporate sustainability mandates, and related policymaking.
- He points to Boston University professor Andrew King, who reportedly found that the influential ESG study could not be replicated.
- According to the article, King argued the paper’s method could not produce enough closely matched firms to support its causal claims.
- Soukup says the study’s authors eventually conceded key problems, including that a result reported as statistically significant was not significant.
- The broader argument is that ESG gained credibility through research that was treated as settled science before it had been properly tested.
- Soukup concludes that while bad social science may not carry the same immediate life-or-death consequences as bad medical research, it has still distorted capital markets, corporate governance, and trillions of dollars in investment decisions.
Read the full story: https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/05/30/esg-replication-crisis/
