IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbfina/v161y2024ics0378426624000347.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can information provision and preference elicitation promote ESG investments? Evidence from a large, incentivized online experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Seifert, Marcel
  • Spitzer, Florian
  • Haeckl, Simone
  • Gaudeul, Alexia
  • Kirchler, Erich
  • Palan, Stefan
  • Gangl, Katharina

Abstract

Sustainable investing is characterized by considerations of both financial returns and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) impacts. We investigate how information about these two aspects, individually and in combination, affects investors’ decision to invest sustainably and their satisfaction with the information they received. We also test whether different ESG preference elicitation modes affect these investment decisions and investors’ satisfaction. We conduct an incentivized online experiment with two samples, experienced retail investors and a representative sample of the Austrian population in terms of age and gender (N = 2,254 in total). We find that both financial return information and ESG impact information stimulate ESG investment. Providing both types of information does not have a greater effect than presenting either one alone. Finally, we find no effect on satisfaction and the ESG preference elicitation mode significantly affects neither investment decisions nor satisfaction.

Suggested Citation

  • Seifert, Marcel & Spitzer, Florian & Haeckl, Simone & Gaudeul, Alexia & Kirchler, Erich & Palan, Stefan & Gangl, Katharina, 2024. "Can information provision and preference elicitation promote ESG investments? Evidence from a large, incentivized online experiment," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:161:y:2024:i:c:s0378426624000347
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2024.107114
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378426624000347
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2024.107114?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ESG investments; Sustainable investments; Financial advice; Investor behavior; Financial return information; ESG impact information; Incentivized experiment; preregistered;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D90 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - General
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • G53 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Financial Literacy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:161:y:2024:i:c:s0378426624000347. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbf .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.