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Are ethical and green investment funds more resilient?

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  • Capotă, Laura-Dona
  • Giuzio, Margherita
  • Kapadia, Sujit
  • Salakhova, Dilyara

Abstract

Funds with an environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) mandate have been growing rapidly in recent years and received inflows also during periods of market turmoil, such as March 2020, in contrast to their non-ESG peers. This paper investigates whether investors in ESG funds react differently to past negative performance, making these funds less sensitive to short-term changes in returns. In the absence of an ESG-label, we define an ESG- or Environmentally-focused fund if its name contains relevant words. The results show that ESG/E equity and corporate bond funds exhibit a weaker flow-performance relationship compared to traditional funds in 2016-2020. This finding may reflect the longer-term investment horizon of ESG investors and their expectation of better risk-adjusted performance from ESG funds in the future. We also explore how the results vary across institutional and retail investors and how they depend on the liquidity of funds’ assets and wider market conditions. A weaker flow-performance relationship allows funds to provide a stable source of financing to the green transition and may reduce risks for financial stability, particularly during turmoil episodes. JEL Classification: G11, G23, Q56, C58

Suggested Citation

  • Capotă, Laura-Dona & Giuzio, Margherita & Kapadia, Sujit & Salakhova, Dilyara, 2022. "Are ethical and green investment funds more resilient?," Working Paper Series 2747, European Central Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20222747
    Note: 3546207
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    Cited by:

    1. Richard Schmidt & Pinar Yesin, 2022. "The growing importance of investment funds in capital flows," Aussenwirtschaft, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science, Swiss Institute for International Economics and Applied Economics Research, vol. 72(01), pages 1-40, December.
    2. Gourdel, Régis & Sydow, Matthias, 2023. "Non-banks contagion and the uneven mitigation of climate risk," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    3. Gourdel, Régis & Sydow, Matthias, 2022. "Non-banks contagion and the uneven mitigation of climate risk," Working Paper Series 2757, European Central Bank.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    climate risk; green finance; investment funds; sustainable investments;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth
    • C58 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Financial Econometrics

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