Luca Enriques Wins The 2024 Berkeley Center for Law and Business Best Paper

The paper ‘Green Gatekeepers,’ co-authored by Luca Enriques, Professor of Corporate Law, together with Alessandro Romano and Andrew Tuch, has won the 2024 Berkeley Center for Law and Business Best Paper Award. It is the only winner in the senior category.

The paper investigates the reliability of environmental claims, such as ‘carbon neutral,’ ‘recycled,’ and ‘sustainable,’ which are often difficult for consumers and investors to verify due to their credence attributes. It examines the role of green gatekeepers, who certify these claims, and argues that they face weaker reputational constraints compared to traditional financial gatekeepers, making them more likely to issue inaccurate certifications. Drawing on hand-coded data from over 450 green gatekeepers, the authors reveal that many are opaque and fail to disclose their standards. The paper proposes a regulatory framework to identify weakly constrained green gatekeepers and craft appropriate policy responses.