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Who is Willing to Let Ethics Guide His Economic Decision-Making? Evidence from Individual Investments in Ethical Funds

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  • Säve-Söderbergh, Jenny

    () (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University)

Abstract

Recent economics literature has devoted attention towards motives beyond the typical selfish norm for economic decision-making. Yet, it still remains a puzzle who allows such considerations to govern their behavior. This paper contributes by empirically identifying some features which differentiate individuals who choose to bear the cost of ethically guided economic decision-making from others. Using unique Swedish data on individual pension portfolio choices, we find that education, the choice of an occupation that is committed to taking care of others, actively joining a group working for a common cause, clearly predict the choice of an ethical screen for individual investments.In contrast to previous findings on altruism, income, financial wealth and age do not govern the decision. The results therefore suggest that investing ethically is typically a choice of principles.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Swedish Institute for Social Research in its series Working Paper Series with number 7/2005.

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Length: 37 pages
Date of creation: 24 Nov 2005
Date of revision:
Publication status: Published as Säve-Söderbergh, Jenny, 'Who is Willing to Let Ethics Guide His Economic Decision-Making? Evidence from Individual Investments in Ethical Funds' in Economics Letters, 2010, pages 270-272.
Handle: RePEc:hhs:sofiwp:2005_007

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Related research

Keywords: Socially Responsible Investing; Altruism; Individual Financial Investments; Individual Decision-Making; Ethics and Norms;

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References

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  24. repec:feb:natura:0045 is not listed on IDEAS
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