IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/cfrwps/0713.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

SRI funds: Nomen est omen

Author

Listed:
  • Kempf, Alexander
  • Osthoff, Peer

Abstract

We test the frequently made claim that SRI funds are conventional funds in disguise. For this purpose, we compare the portfolio holdings of SRI funds to conventional funds concerning their social and environmental standards. Our empirical study of US equity funds shows that SRI funds have a significantly higher ethical ranking than standard funds, i.e., they are not conventional funds in disguise. This result holds for all ethical criteria we investigate. It is stable over time and holds after controlling for several fund characteristics. Finally, we find no evidence that our result is generated by window dressing strategies of SRI funds.

Suggested Citation

  • Kempf, Alexander & Osthoff, Peer, 2007. "SRI funds: Nomen est omen," CFR Working Papers 07-13, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:cfrwps:0713
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/57726/1/714985082.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. N. Kreander & R.H. Gray & D.M. Power & C.D. Sinclair, 2005. "Evaluating the Performance of Ethical and Non‐ethical Funds: A Matched Pair Analysis," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7‐8), pages 1465-1493, September.
    2. Russ Wermers, 2000. "Mutual Fund Performance: An Empirical Decomposition into Stock-Picking Talent, Style, Transactions Costs, and Expenses," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1655-1703, August.
    3. Elton, Edwin J, et al, 1993. "Efficiency with Costly Information: A Reinterpretation of Evidence from Managed Portfolios," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 6(1), pages 1-22.
    4. N. Kreander & R.H. Gray & D.M. Power & C.D. Sinclair, 2005. "Evaluating the Performance of Ethical and Non-ethical Funds: A Matched Pair Analysis," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7-8), pages 1465-1493.
    5. Alan Gregory & Julie Whittaker, 2007. "Performance and Performance Persistence of 'Ethical' Unit Trusts in the UK," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(7-8), pages 1327-1344.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Don Andrew, 2020. "An Index to Measure the Integrity of Investment Companies Investing Responsibility," Journal of International Business Research and Marketing, Inovatus Services Ltd., vol. 5(5), pages 36-51, July.
    2. Subrata Roy, 2019. "Impact of Environmental (E), Social (S) and Governance (G) Factors on Return Distribution," Paradigm, , vol. 23(1), pages 20-35, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xing Chen & Bert Scholtens, 2018. "The urge to act: A comparison of active and passive socially responsible investment funds in the United States," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(6), pages 1154-1173, November.
    2. Alexander Kempf & Peer Osthoff, 2008. "SRI Funds: Nomen est Omen," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(9-10), pages 1276-1294.
    3. Shafiqur Rahman & Cheng-Few Lee & Yaqing Xiao, 2017. "The investment performance, attributes, and investment behavior of ethical equity mutual funds in the US: an empirical investigation," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 91-116, July.
    4. Henke, Hans-Martin, 2016. "The effect of social screening on bond mutual fund performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 69-84.
    5. Sebastian Lobe & Christian Walkshäusl, 2016. "Vice versus virtue investing around the world," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 303-344, March.
    6. Muñoz, Fernando, 2016. "Cash flow timing skills of socially responsible mutual fund investors," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 110-124.
    7. Luis Ferruz & Fernando Muñoz & María Vargas, 2012. "Managerial Abilities: Evidence from Religious Mutual Fund Managers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 105(4), pages 503-517, February.
    8. Christine Helliar & Barbara Petracci & Nongnuch Tantisantiwong, 2022. "Comparing SRI funds to conventional funds using a PCA methodology," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(7), pages 581-595, December.
    9. Renneboog, Luc & Ter Horst, Jenke & Zhang, Chendi, 2008. "The price of ethics and stakeholder governance: The performance of socially responsible mutual funds," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 302-322, June.
    10. Guillermo Badía & Vicente Pina & Lourdes Torres, 2019. "Financial Performance of Government Bond Portfolios Based on Environmental, Social and Governance Criteria," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-13, April.
    11. Fernando Mu�oz & Ruth Vicente & Luis Ferruz, 2015. "Stock-picking and style-timing abilities: a comparative analysis of conventional and socially responsible mutual funds in the US market," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 345-358, February.
    12. Angeles Fernandez-Izquierdo & Juan Matallin-Saez, 2008. "Performance of Ethical Mutual Funds in Spain: Sacrifice or Premium?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 81(2), pages 247-260, August.
    13. Leite, Paulo & Cortez, Maria Céu, 2014. "Style and performance of international socially responsible funds in Europe," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 248-267.
    14. Hutchinson, Mark C. & Mulcahy, Mark & O'Brien, John, 2018. "What is the cost of faith? An empirical investigation of Islamic purification," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 134-143.
    15. Javier Gil-Bazo & Pablo Ruiz-Verdú & André Santos, 2010. "The Performance of Socially Responsible Mutual Funds: The Role of Fees and Management Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 94(2), pages 243-263, June.
    16. Gregor Dorfleitner & Michaela Leidl & Johannes Reeder, 2012. "Theory of social returns in portfolio choice with application to microfinance," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 13(6), pages 384-400, December.
    17. Pablo Durán-Santomil & Luis Otero-González & Renato Heitor Correia-Domingues & Juan Carlos Reboredo, 2019. "Does Sustainability Score Impact Mutual Fund Performance?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-17, May.
    18. Sebastian Rathner, 2013. "The Influence of Primary Study Characteristics on the Performance Differential Between Socially Responsible and Conventional Investment Funds: A Meta-Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 349-363, December.
    19. Renneboog, L.D.R. & Ter Horst, J.R. & Zhang, C., 2007. "Socially Responsible Investments : Methodology, Risk Exposure and Performance," Other publications TiSEM 1ff75080-22db-4909-9f13-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    20. Leite, Paulo & Cortez, Maria Céu, 2015. "Performance of European socially responsible funds during market crises: Evidence from France," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 132-141.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Socially Responsible Mutual Funds; Socially Responsible Investing; Ethical Investment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility

    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:zbw:cfrwps:0713. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cfkoede.html .

    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.