The responsible investing movement should join the fight against corporate welfare.
That’s the argument made by a new report authored by CEA President John C. Mozena and Richard Morrison, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The report, “Corporate Social Irresponsibility: After ESG, activist investors should side with taxpayers” was published by CEI on July 15, 2025.
In it, Mozena and Morrison lay out the high costs – both financial and societal – of state and local governments’ ‘economic development’ subsidy programs and encourage activist investors, ratings agencies and other stakeholders in the “ESG” movement to hold companies accountable for their participation in them.
This would be an opportunity, the report argues, for people who care about ethical corporate governance to make a difference in an area that is not as politically sensitive or culturally divisive as “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) programs, radical environmental policy or other hot-button issues. And their assistance could well end up playing a major role, the authors point out:
Something needs to change. If that change can’t come from within the existing corporate and political worlds, then it must come from outside. Fortunately, there is an existing movement of investors, activists, and other stakeholders that is dedicated to working at the intersection of business and government to drive such change. Whether we call those people advocates for principled business, corporate social responsibility, or ESG, that infrastructure already exists.
Read the entire report on the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s website.