An Exploration Of The Economic Effects On University Endowments' Investments When Transferred From Fossil Fuels To Alternative Energy

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to determine that if universities were to move their endowments from fossil fuel to alternative energy investments, if it would hurt their overall returns comparatively or not. There is a seemingly constant debate on whether or not the government, as well as private entities should move from fossil fuel dependence to renewable energies or not for a number of reasons, including innovation and environmental concerns. This thesis seeks to explore this question from a purely financial basis by exploring the investments of universities, entities already on both sides of the coin, to determine if renewable investment is worse than oil and gas investment. One of my findings was that renewable energy investment, in fact, had higher returns than oil and gas investments, returning 169.45% over ten years compared to 43.75%.