Sustainability considerations are ascendant priorities for consumers, policy makers, and corporations. These global sustainability megatrends have pecuniary implications for corporate performance. At Causeway, our commitment and approach to sustainability are informed by research. We believe that shareholder-friendly corporate governance and sustainable business practices have the potential to contribute positively to a company’s performance over a full market cycle.
Integration
Causeway has applied a deliberate approach to integrate sustainability into our process. We have provided training to fundamental analysts on sustainability issues, built desktop applications to facilitate sustainable research integration, and instituted accountability for observing integration procedures.
Research
Since becoming a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) in 2016, Causeway has conducted programmatic research aimed at identifying key sustainability issues, developing a structured and evidence-based understanding of those issues, and mapping out and empirically testing their investment implications. Our research examines both traditional and big unstructured data sets, employing state-of-the-art quantitative and statistical learning techniques combined with deep fundamental knowledge of the economic drivers of investment performance.
We have developed Causeway Fiduciary ESG Scores that evaluate companies on material sustainability issues. These scores predicted returns in a global equity universe and maintained out-of-sample efficacy in back tests.
Analytics
Using Causeway Risk Lens, you can see funds’ Causeway Fiduciary ESG Scores. Watch this video to learn more.
Director of Sustainability Research
Mozaffar Khan, PhD
Director of Sustainability Research
Dr. Khan is a portfolio manager and director of sustainability research at Causeway. He joined the firm in April 2017 and has been a portfolio manager since December 2021. Prior to Causeway, he was the Honeywell Professor at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, the James M Collins Professor at Harvard Business School, and earlier, an assistant professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Dr. Khan has published numerous scientific articles in leading academic journals on stock return prediction models and signals. At Causeway, Dr. Khan works closely with fellow Causeway quantitative portfolio managers in alpha research and portfolio construction. He leads our Sustainability research, integration, product development, and Sustainable portfolio management efforts.
Dr. Khan earned a PhD in accounting, with a focus on statistics, economics, and finance, from the University of Toronto.
Read our interview with Mo.
Speaking Appearances
Mo Khan was a guest speaker at the University of Southern California – November 2023
Mo Khan guest lectured at the University of Notre Dame – April 2023
Mo Khan guest lectured at the University of Southern California – November 2022
Mo Khan guest lectured at Singapore Management University – July 2022
Mo Khan presented on the topic of ESG and public equity returns to a large public pension system as part of their internal presentation series – June 2022
Mo Khan presented at the University of Massachusetts – April 2022
Mo Khan was a guest speaker at Imperial College – London, January 2022
Presentation at University of Southern California global academic conference – Los Angeles, December 2021
Guest lecture at the University of Texas – Austin, November 2021
Guest lecture at the University of Waterloo – Ontario, August 2021