Professor Gordon L. Clark

Senior Consultant and Emeritus Professor
Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford
Sir Louis Matheson Distinguished Visiting Professor, Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University, Melbourne

email PA: +44 (0)1865 285067 (Jennifer Sabourin) +44 (0)1865 285197

Academic Profile
Teaching
Publications

Academic Profile

Professor Gordon L Clark DSc (Oxon) FBA is a Senior Consultant and Emeritus Professor at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment with cross-appointments in the Saïd Business School and the School of Geography and the Environment at Oxford University. He holds a Professorial Fellowship at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He is as well, Sir Louis Matheson Distinguished Visiting Professor at Monash University's Faculty of Business and Economics (Melbourne) and a Visiting Professor at Stanford University. Previous academic appointments have been at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Law School (Senior Research Associate), the University of Chicago, Carnegie Mellon's Heinz School and Monash University. Other honours include being Andrew Mellon Fellow at the US National Academy of Sciences and Visiting Scholar Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst at the University of Marburg.

Teaching

Corporate Environmental Management: The course informs students wishing to act as internal or external change agents for driving corporate environmental performance, as well as those wishing to understand the nature of the modern corporation for research purposes. The course is supported by a selection of practical and academic readings and by class discussion of relevant case studies used to illustrate the points of each lecture.

Corporate Social and Environmental Accountability: In this course, we consider the relationship between corporate responsibility and the role of financial markets in driving the long-term environmental decision-making of corporations. This provides us a way of understanding globalization, corporate social and environmental standards, and the role of institutional investors in the global economy.

Current Graduate Research Students

Pablo Astudillo-Estévez	Path dependence, reinforcement mechanisms and economic complexity in commodity-exporting countries
Micol Chiesa	Do firms forget about the environment? Evidence from publicly listed corporations
Theodor Cojoianu	Environmental investment strategies across the investment value chain: addressing the investment gap in clean technologies - from asset owners to entrepreneurs
Paulo de Souza	Can society and corporations share the same perspective on sustainability? Should they?
Ashim Paun	Efficacy in national policy frameworks for a post-oil era
Ian Robertson	A Framework for Responsible Investment, with particular focus on proxy voting
Xuanyi Sheng	The governance and management of public-private partnerships bringing together stakeholders in the realization of complex engineering projects - One Belt One Road Initiative

Recent Graduate Research Students (since 2006)

Jennifer Gooden Completed DPhil in 2019	From William James to Twenty-First Century landowners: perspectives on private land conservation
Aniket Shah Completed DPhil in 2019	The economic geography of development banking for sustainable development
Pierre-Louis Choquet Completed DPhil in 2018	Fragmented horizons: multinational firms and ethical life in the Anthropocene
Elizabeth Harnett Completed DPhil in 2018	The diffusion of responsible investment discourses and practices: the role and impact of investment consultants
Christopher Kaminker Completed DPhil in 2018	The role of institutional investors in financing sustainable energy
Stephanie Mooij Completed DPhil in 2018	The (mis)alignment of ESG perspectives in the investment chain. A cross-country analysis of the obstacles facing companies, asset managers and asset owners.
Michael Urban Completed DPhil in 2018	Placing the production of investment returns: an economic geography of asset management in public pension plans
Laura-Marie Töpfer Completed DPhil in 2017	Mapping Chinese cross-border finance: actors, networks and institutional development
Irem Kok Completed DPhil in 2016	Politics of transparency: contested spaces of corporate responsibility, science and regulation in shale gas projects of the UK and US
Yukie Saito Completed DPhil in 2016	Corporate engagement for sustainable business in development
Yin Yang Completed DPhil in 2016	The economic geography of urban water infrastructure investment and governance - a comparison of Beijing and London
Heather Hachigian Completed DPhil in 2015	Governance frameworks for responsible investing: the case of sovereign sponsored funds.
Sarah-Jane Littleford Completed DPhil in 2015	For the benefit of current and future generations: prospects for intergenerational equity in South Africa
Sarah McGill Completed DPhil in 2015	The economic governance of global commodity markets
Dane Rook Completed DPhil in 2015	Doxastic spaces: a new approach to relational beliefs and unstable neglect
Alex Money Completed DPhil in 2014	Corporate water risk and return
Aisha Saad Completed DPhil in 2014	Contesting corporate social responsibility: public challenges to the modern corporation in the 21st Century
Dorothee Franzen Completed DPhil in 2013	Impact of regulation on the asset investment of defined benefit pension funds
Nicholas Howarth Completed DPhil in 2012	An integrated theory of economic and political change: including four papers on the shift to a low carbon economy
Caitlin McElroy Completed DPhil in 2012	Corporate social responsibility in the extractive and energy industries: effects on resource use and indigenous development
Rajiv Sharma Completed DPhil in 2012	The role of private institutional investors in developing urban infrastructure assets
Jiazhe Sun Completed DPhil in 2012	Climate change, sustainable power sources, and developing economies
Csaba Burger Completed DPhil in 2011	Occupational pensions in Germany - an economic geography
Taylor Gray Completed DPhil in 2011	A corporate geography of Canada: governance and networks
Claire Woods Completed DPhil in 2011	Legal frameworks for sustainable investment
Eric Knight Completed DPhil in 2010	The finance of climate change
Leng Lee Completed DPhil in 2010	Rural-urban migration in China
Ville-Pekka Sorsa Completed DPhil in 2010	Pension fund capitalism in Europe: institutional organisation and governance of investment in Finnish pension insurance companies
Adam Dixon Completed DPhil in 2009	The geography of European financial integration and long-term asset management
Janelle Knox-Hayes Completed DPhil in 2009	Constructing an international market for carbon trading: an institutional perspective.
Lisa Hagerman Completed DPhil in 2008	Public pension fund investment in urban revitalization.
Ashby Monk Completed DPhil in 2008	The burden of corporate pension liabilities in the emerging global economy.
Kendra Strauss Completed DPhil in 2008	Choice, risk and the context of decision making in UK pensions.
Emiko Caerlewy-Smith Completed DPhil in 2007	Investment decision-making: attitudes and actions of UK defined benefit pension fund trustees.
James Salo Completed DPhil in 2006	Corporate environmental performance: governance, intangible assets, and financial markets.
Morag Torrance Completed DPhil in 2006	The financialisation of the urban infrastructure landscape: unravelling financial flows into urban geographies.

Selected Publications

Books

Clark, G.L., Feldman, M.P., Gertler, M.S. and Wójcik, D. (2018) The New Oxford Handbook of Economic Geography. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. pp. 976. ISBN: 9780198755609.
Clark, G.L. and Monk, A.H.B. (2017) Institutional Investors in Global Markets. Oxford University Press. pp. 288. ISBN: 9780198793212.
Clark, G.L., Dixon, A.D. and Monk, A.H.B. (2013) Sovereign Wealth Funds: Legitimacy, Governance and Global Power. Princeton University Press. pp. 236. ISBN: 9780691142296.
Clark, G.L., Strauss, K. and Knox-Hayes, J. (2012) Saving for Retirement. Oxford University Press, Oxford. pp. 224. ISBN: 978-0-19-960085-4.
Clark, G.L., Dixon, A.D. and Monk, A.H.B. (eds.) (2009) Managing Financial Risks: From Global to Local. Oxford University Press, Oxford. pp. 304. ISBN: 9780199557431.
Clark, G.L. (2008) Pension Fund Capitalism. China Financial Publishing House. (Chinese translation).

Journal Articles

Innocenti, S., Clark, G.L., McGill, S. and Cuñado, J. (2019) The effect of past health events on intentions to purchase insurance: evidence from 11 countries. Journal of Economic Psychology, 74: 1-21. 102204.
Clark, G.L. (2018) Learning-by-doing and knowledge management in financial markets. Journal of Economic Geography, 18(2): 271-292.
Clark, G.L., McGill, S. and Cuñado, J. (2018) Migrant workers, self-reliance, and the propensity to hold income protection insurance by country of residence. Geographical Research.
Clark, G.L. (2017) Financial intermediation, infrastructure investment and regional growth. Area Development and Policy, 2(3).
Clark, G.L. and Urwin, R. (2017) The Outsourced Chief Investment Officer Model of Management and the Principal–Agent Problem. The Journal of Retirement, 4(3): 28-41.
Christopherson, S., Clark, G.L. and Whiteman, J. (2015) Introduction: the Euro crisis and the future of Europe. Journal of Economic Geography, 15(5): 843-853.
Clark, G.L. (2015) The Components of Talent: Company Size and Financial Centres in the European Investment Management Industry. Regional Studies, 50(1): 168-181.
Clark, G.L. (2015) The geography of the European Central Bank: form, functions and legitimacy. Journal of Economic Geography, 15(5): 855-881.
Clark, G.L. and Monk, A.H.B. (2015) The production of investment returns in spatially-extensive markets. The Professional Geographer, 67(4): 595-607.
Clark, G.L., Lai, K.P.Y. and Wójcik, D. (2015) Editorial Introduction to the Special Section: Deconstructing Offshore Finance. Economic Geography, 91(3): 237-249.
Clark, G.L., McGill, S.M., Saito, Y. and Viehs, M. (2015) Shareholder engagement in responsible investing: evidence from a UK institutional investor’s strategy in Japan. Annals in Social Responsibility, 1(1): 30-56.
Bachher, J.S., Clark, G.L., Monk, A. and Sridhar, K. (2014) “The Valley of Opportunity”: Rethinking Venture Capital for Long-Term Institutional Investors. Alternative Investment Analyst Review, 3(1): 63-75.
Clark, G.L. (2014) Financial Literacy in Context: A rejoinder. Economic Geography, 90(1): 29-31.
Clark, G.L. (2014) Roepke Lecture in Economic Geography - Financial literacy in context. Economic Geography, 90(1): 1-23.
Clark, G.L. and Monk, A.H.B. (2014) State and local pension fund governance and the process of contracting for investment services: the scope of diversity and the problem of embeddedness. Territory, Politics, Governance, 2(2): 150-172.
Clark, G.L. and Monk, A.H.B. (2014) The geography of investment management contracts: the UK, Europe and the global financial services industry. Environment and Planning A, 46(3): 531-549.
Bodman, A.R., Christopherson, S.M., Clark, G.L. and Gertler, M.S. (2013) Editorial: Wrigley’s project. Journal of Economic Geography, 13(2): 203-210.
Clark, G.L. (2013) Mapping financial literacy: cognition and the environment. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 95(2): 131-145.
Clark, G.L. (2013) The Kay Review on Long-Horizon Investing: A Guide for the Perplexed. Rotman International Journal of Pension Management, 6(1): 58-63.
Clark, G.L. and Monk, A.H.B. (2013) Financial institutions, information and investing-at-a-distance. Environment and Planning A, 45(6): 1318-1336.
Clark, G.L. and Monk, A.H.B. (2013) The scope of financial institutions: in-sourcing, outsourcing and off-shoring. Journal of Economic Geography, 13(2): 279-298. Appears in: Special Issue: Global Retail and Global Finance – Honouring Neil Wrigley.
Gerrans, P. and Clark, G.L. (2013) Pension plan participant choice: Evidence on defined benefit and defined contribution preferences. Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, 12(4): 351-378.
Clark, G.L. (2012) From corporatism to public utilities: workplace pensions in the 21st Century. Geographical Research, 50(1): 31-46.
Clark, G.L. (2012) Pensions or property? Environment and Planning A, 44(5): 1185-1199.
Clark, G.L. and Monk, A. (2012) Modernity, Imitation and Performance: Sovereign Funds in the Gulf. Business and Politics, 14(1 (Article 1)).
Clark, G.L. and Monk, A.H.B. (2012) Sovereign Wealth Funds: Form and functions in the 21st Century. CAPCO Journal, 33: 17-27.
Clark, G.L., Almond, S. and Strauss, K. (2012) The home, pension savings and risk aversion: intentions of the defined contribution pension plan participants of a London-based investment bank at the peak of the bubble. Urban Studies, 49(6): 1251-1273.
Burger, C. and Clark, G.L. (2011) The German model of risk distribution in supplementary occupational pensions. The Journal of Risk, 13(3).
Burger, C., Clark, G.L., Franzen, D., Heldmann, J. and Karch, H. (2011) Betriebliche altersvorsorge in Deutschland - ergebnisse einer expertenumfrage. Betriebliche Altersversorgung, 1: 64-72.
Clark, G.L. (2011) Myopia and the global financial crisis: Context-specific reasoning, market structure and institutional governance. Dialogues in Human Geography, 1(1): 4-25.
Clark, G.L. and Knight, E.R.W. (2011) Temptation and the virtues of long-term commitment: the governance of sovereign wealth fund investment. Asian Journal of International Law, 1(2): 321-348.
Clark, G.L. and Monk, A.H.B. (2011) Pension reserve funds: aligning form and function. Rotman International Journal of Pension Management, 4(2): 18-25.
Clark, G.L. and Monk, A.H.B. (2011) The political economy of US-China trade and investment: the role of the China Investment Corporation. Competition and Change, 15(2): 97-115.
Clark, G.L. and Urwin, R. (2011) DC pension fund best-practice design and governance. Benefits Quarterly, Fourth Quarter 2011: 36-49.
Clark, G.L. (2010) Human nature, the environment and behaviour: explaining the scope and geographical scale of financial decision-making. Geografiska Annaler: B, Human Geography, 92(2): 159-173.
Clark, G.L. (2010) Myopia and the global financial crisis: short-termism, context-specific reasoning and market structure. SPACES online, 8(2010-01).
Clark, G.L. and Monk, A.H.B. (2010) Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC): insurer of last resort and bulwark of nation-state legitimacy. The Pacific Review, 23(4): 429-451.
Clark, G.L. and Monk, A.H.B. (2010) The legitimacy and governance of Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund: the ethics of global investment. Environment and Planning, A, 42(7): 1723-1738.
Clark, G.L. and Monk, A.H.B. (2010) The Norwegian government pension fund: ethics over efficiency. Rotman International Journal of Pension Management, 3(1): 14-19.
Clark, G.L. and Urwin, R. (2010) Innovative models of pension fund governance in the context of the global financial crisis. Pensions: An International Journal, 15(1): 62-77.
Clark, G.L., Durán-Fernández, R. and Strauss, K. (2010) 'Being in the market': the UK house-price bubble and the intended structure of individual pension investment portfolios. Journal of Economic Geography, 10(3): 331-359.
Clark, G.L., Monk, A., Dixon, A., Pauly, L.W., Faulconbridge, J., Yeung, J.W. and Behrendt, S. (2010) Symposium: sovereign fund capitalism. Environment and Planning, A, 42(9): 2271-2291.
Clark, G.L. and Knight, E.R.W. (2009) Implications of the UK Companies Act 2006 for institutional investors and the market for corporate social responsibility. University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law, 11(2): 259-296.
Clark, G.L. and Knox-Hayes, J. (2009) The 'new' paternalism, consultation and consent: expectations of UK participants in defined contribution and self-directed retirement savings schemes. Pensions: An International Journal, 14(1): 58-74.
Clark, G.L., Caerlewy-Smith, E. and Marshall, J.C. (2009) Solutions to the asset allocation problem by informed respondents: the significance of the size-of-bet and the 1/n heuristic. Risk Management and Insurance Review, 12(2): 251-271.
Clark, G.L., Knox-Hayes, J. and Strauss, K. (2009) Financial sophistication, salience and the scale of deliberation in UK retirement planning. Environment and Planning A, 41(10): 2496-2515.
Lee, R., Clark, G.L., Pollard, J. and Leyshon, A. (2009) The remit of financial geography - before and after the crisis. Journal of Economic Geography, 9(5): 723-727.
Clark, G.L. (2008) Governing finance: global imperatives and the challenge of reconciling community representation with expertise. Economic Geography, 84(3): 281-302.
Clark, G.L. and Monk, A.H.B. (2008) Conceptualizing the defined benefit pension promise: implications from a survey of expert opinion. Benefits Quarterly, First Quar: 7-31.
Clark, G.L. and Strauss, K. (2008) Individual pension related risk propensities: the effects of socio-demographic characteristics and a spousal pension entitlement on risk attitudes. Ageing and Society, 28: 847-874.
Clark, G.L. and Urwin, R. (2008) Best-practice pension fund governance. Journal of Asset Management, 9(1): 2-21.
Clark, G.L. and Urwin, R. (2008) Making pensions boards work: the critical role of leadership. Rotman International Journal of Pension Management, 1(1): 38-45.
Clark, G.L., Salo, J. and Hebb, T. (2008) Social and environmental shareholder activism in the public spotlight: US corporate annual meetings, campaign strategies and environmental performance, 2001-04. Environment and Planning A, 40(6): 1370-1390.

Book Chapters

Clark, G.L. (2017) The financial legacy of pension fund capitalism. Chapter 15 in, Martin, R. and Pollard, J. (eds.) Handbook on the Geographies of Money and Finance. Edward Elgar. pp. 348-376. ISBN: 978 1 78471 899 2.
Clark, G.L. and Urwin, R. (2016) Best-Practice Pension Fund Governance. In, Satchell, S. (ed.) Asset Management: Portfolio Construction, Performance and Returns. Springer International Publishing. pp. 295-322. ISBN: 978-3-319-30793-0.
Clark, G.L. and Viehs, M. (2016) Corporate Social Responsibility: The Case for Active Ownership by Institutional Investors. Chapter 17 in, Barton, D., Horváth, D. and Kipping, M. (eds.) Re-Imagining Capitalism: Building a Responsible Long-Term Model. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 368 pp. ISBN: 9780198785453.
Clark, G.L. (2015) Geography of Finance. In, Wright, J.D. (ed.) International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioural Sciences, 2nd edition, vol. 9. Elsevier. pp. 177-182. ISBN: 9780080970868.
Clark, G.L. (2015) The UK Pensions Crisis and Institutional Innovation: Beyond Corporatism and Neo-liberalism. 6. in, Torp, C. (ed.) Challenges of Aging: Pensions, Retirement and Generational Justice. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 105-132. ISBN: 9781137283160.
Clark, G.L., Hachigian, H., McGill, S., Molinari, C. and Wójcik, D. (2015) Addressing the challenges of transformation through sustainable investment. Chapter 46 in, Hebb, T., Hawley, J.P., Hoepner, A.G.F., Neher, A.L. and Wood, D. (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Responsible Investment. Routledge, London. 740 pp. ISBN: 9780415624510.
Burger, C. and Clark, G.L. (2013) Finanzkompetenz, institutionelle Rahmenbedingungen und Vorsorge. Chapter 6 in, Hurrelmann, K. and Karch, H. (eds.) Jugend, Vorsorge, Finanzen: Von der Generation Praktikum zur Generation Altersarmut. MetallRente/BeltzJuventa. pp. 154-174. ISBN: 978-3-7799-2881-2.
Clark, G.L. and Woods, C. (2012) The impossible planetary trust: intergenerational equity, long-term investment and water governance and regulation. Chapter 10 in, Godfrey, J.M. and Chalmers, K. (eds.) Water Accounting: International Approaches to Policy and Decision-making. Edward Elgar. pp. 189-202. ISBN: 9781849807494.
Clark, G.L. (2010) Brian Berry. Chapter 7 in, Hubbard, P. and R. Kitchin (eds.) Key Thinkers on Space and Place, 2nd edition. SAGE, London. pp. 63-68. ISBN: 9781849201025.
Strauss, K. and Clark, G.L. (2010) The geographical pension gap: understanding patterns of inequality in UK occupational pensions. In, Coe, N. and A. Jones (eds.) The Economic Geography of the UK. SAGE, London. 280 pp. ISBN: 9781849200899.
Clark, G.L. (2009) Institutional investors and risk management. Chapter 3 in, Clark, G.L., Dixon, A.D. and Monk, A.H.B. (eds.) Managing Financial Risks: From Global to Local. Oxford University Press, Oxford. pp. 69-94. ISBN: 9780199557431.
Clark, G.L., Dixon, A.D. and Monk, A.H.B. (2009) Introduction. In, Clark, G.L., Dixon, A.D. and Monk, A.H.B. (eds.) Managing Financial Risks: From Global to Local. Oxford University Press, Oxford. pp. 1-26. ISBN: 9780199557431.
Clark, G.L., Marshall, J.C. and Strauss, K. (2009) Financial knowledge. In, Kitchin, R. and Thrift, N. (eds.) International Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Elsevier, Oxford. pp. 159-166. ISBN: 9780080449104.
Babcock-Lumish, T.L. and Clark, G.L. (2008) Pricing the economic landscape: global financial markets and the communities and institutions of risk management. In, Wescoat Jr., J.L. and Johnston, D.M. (eds.) Political Economies of Landscape Change. . 221 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4020-5848-6.
Clark, G.L. (2008) Pension fund governance: expertise and organizational form. Chapter 2 in, Evans, J., Orszag, M. and Piggott, J. (eds.) Pension Fund Governance: A global perspective on financial regulation. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 9-29. ISBN: 978 1 84720 485 1.
Clark, G.L. and Salo, J. (2008) Corporate governance and environmental risk management: a quantitative analysis of 'New Paradigm' firms. Chapter 5 in, Quarter, J., Carmichael, I. and Ryan, S. (eds.) Pensions at Work: Socially Responsible Investment of Union-Based Pension Funds. University of Toronto Press. 336 pp. ISBN: 9780802093103.

Other Publications

Clark, G.L., Hebb, T. and Hagerman, L. (2008) Pension funds role in urban investing. Pensions and Investments, May 26.

Reports

McGill, S.M., Clark, G.L. and Whiteside, N. (2017) Embracing the Income Protection Gaps Challenge: Options and Solutions. Report prepared for Zurich Insurance Group, Zürich.
McGill, S.M., Cuñado, J. and Clark, G.L. (2016) Income Protection Gaps: Awareness, Behaviour, Choices. Report prepared for Zurich Insurance Group, Zürich.
Clark, G.L., Blowfield, M., McElroy, C., Caldecott, B.L., McSharry, P., McDaniels, J., Tilbury, J., Krosinsky, C. and Chachoua, E. (2014) A new vision of value: connecting corporate and societal value creation. KPMG International, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Clark, G.L., Urwin, R., Allen, M.R., Wójcik, D., Molinari, C., and McGill, S.M. (2012) Project Telos: Addressing the Challenges of Transformation Through Sustainable Investing. Towers Watson, London

Working Papers

You can find Professor Gordon Clark's Working Papers available from the Centre for Employment Work and Finance (CEWF) webpage.

Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford

The Smith School
of Enterprise and the Environment

Getting the world to net zero emissions
and achieving sustainable development