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SSRN Electronic Journal
Article
License: CC BY NC
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SSRN Electronic Journal
Article . 2013 . Peer-reviewed
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Are European Socially Responsible Mutual Funds Rewarding and Profitable?

Authors: Cristiana Torres; António Cerqueira; Elisio Fernando Moreira Brandao;

Are European Socially Responsible Mutual Funds Rewarding and Profitable?

Abstract

The last two decades have shown us the growing importance of corporate, social and governance programs, as executives, investors and regulators have become increasingly aware of these programs’ potential to mitigate corporate crises and build solid social reputation. Thus, mutual funds that invest according to social, environmental and ethical criteria have increased both in volume and value. This paper investigates the performance of a sample of 80 socially responsible mutual funds from 8 European countries, within the period from 2002 to 2010. Using both the mainstream unconditional model and the most recent conditional models, we address a performance comparison between these funds and unscreened benchmark Indices as well as socially responsible benchmark Indices. We then attest the models results by applying the classical Sharpe Ratio to our Funds sample. We find out that European socially responsible mutual funds present, in general, neutral performance when compared with both benchmark portfolios. Furthermore, performance estimates seem to be slightly higher when funds are analyzed in relation to socially responsible indices and this benchmark has higher explaining power. Conditional models also seem to lead to a slight uplift of performance estimates and of explanatory capacity of the models applied. Sharpe Ratio confirms that there is no significant performance difference between the compared elements. This is consistent with most precedent empirical findings on this issue. Our study reveals that investors can adhibit social screens to their investment choices without pledging their financial returns, contrary to portfolio theory predictions. This paper proves that it is possible to “do well (financially) while doing good (socially)”.

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
0
Average
Average
Average
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