IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/iubhbm/72021.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Risk-adjusted return in sustainable finance: A comparative analysis of European positively screened and best-in-class ESG investment portfolios and the Euro Stoxx 50 index using the Sharpe Ratio

Author

Listed:
  • Gardenier, Julius
  • Lac, Visieu
  • Ashfaq, Muhammad

Abstract

This discussion paper aims at describing the risk-adjusted return of European sustainable and conventional investment portfolios and comparing them to determine whether sustainable investment portfolios generate superior risk-adjusted returns. The paper is based on the bachelor thesis of Julius Gardenier. In fulfilling this aim, we actively construct sustainable positively screenedand best-in-class portfolios using the Sustainalytics ESG risk rating with the help of modern portfolio theory. In a second step, the Sharpe Ratios of these portfolios are compared with those of the Euro Stoxx 50, as a proxy for a conventional portfolio, for the time horizon between 2005 and 2019 thatis divided into ten instances on whose SharpeRatios paired sample t-tests are applied. Results show a statistically significant higher mean Sharpe Ratio for both types of sustainable portfolios when compared to the Euro Stoxx 50 for the periodunder investigation. Additionally, it was found that best-in-class portfolios yielded higher mean Sharpe Ratios. We conclude that, under reference to the paper's limitations, sustainable investments yielded superior risk-adjusted returns when compared to the conventional investment portfolio. Furthermore, the paper's findings identify recommendations for future research and may contribute to the growing body of academic literature in the field of sustainable finance.

Suggested Citation

  • Gardenier, Julius & Lac, Visieu & Ashfaq, Muhammad, 2021. "Risk-adjusted return in sustainable finance: A comparative analysis of European positively screened and best-in-class ESG investment portfolios and the Euro Stoxx 50 index using the Sharpe Ratio," IU Discussion Papers - Business & Management 7/2021, IU International University of Applied Sciences.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:iubhbm:72021
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/235490/1/1761762060.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Helena Naffa & Máté Fain, 2020. "Performance measurement of ESG-themed megatrend investments in global equity markets using pure factor portfolios methodology," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(12), pages 1-34, December.
    2. Gunnar Friede & Timo Busch & Alexander Bassen, 2015. "ESG and financial performance: aggregated evidence from more than 2000 empirical studies," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 210-233, October.
    3. N. C. Ashwin Kumar & Camille Smith & Leïla Badis & Nan Wang & Paz Ambrosy & Rodrigo Tavares, 2016. "ESG factors and risk-adjusted performance: a new quantitative model," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(4), pages 292-300, October.
    4. Benjamin R. Auer, 2016. "Do Socially Responsible Investment Policies Add or Destroy European Stock Portfolio Value?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 381-397, May.
    5. Linda M. Lowson, 2012. "SEC ESG Noncompliance: Where the Rubber Meets the Road," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 24(2), pages 57-64, June.
    6. Kempf, Alexander & Osthoff, Peer, 2007. "The effect of socially responsible investing on portfolio performance," CFR Working Papers 06-10, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    7. 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.
    8. Stephen Brammer & Chris Brooks & Stephen Pavelin, 2006. "Corporate Social Performance and Stock Returns: UK Evidence from Disaggregate Measures," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 35(3), pages 97-116, September.
    9. William F. Sharpe, 1964. "Capital Asset Prices: A Theory Of Market Equilibrium Under Conditions Of Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 19(3), pages 425-442, September.
    10. Rajna Gibson & Philipp Krueger & Nadine Riand & Peter Steffen Schmidt, 2019. "ESG Rating Disagreement and Stock Returns," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 19-67, Swiss Finance Institute.
    11. Ali Alshehhi & Haitham Nobanee & Nilesh Khare, 2018. "The Impact of Sustainability Practices on Corporate Financial Performance: Literature Trends and Future Research Potential," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-25, February.
    12. Alexander Kempf & Peer Osthoff, 2007. "The Effect of Socially Responsible Investing on Portfolio Performance," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 13(5), pages 908-922, November.
    13. Benjamin Hübel & Hendrik Scholz, 2020. "Integrating sustainability risks in asset management: the role of ESG exposures and ESG ratings," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(1), pages 52-69, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Costanza Torricelli & Beatrice Bertelli, 2022. "ESG screening strategies and portfolio performance: how do they fare in periods of financial distress?," Centro Studi di Banca e Finanza (CEFIN) (Center for Studies in Banking and Finance) 0087, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".
    2. Ved Dilip Beloskar & S. V. D. Nageswara Rao, 2023. "Did ESG Save the Day? Evidence From India During the COVID-19 Crisis," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 30(1), pages 73-107, March.
    3. Jedynak Tomasz, 2017. "Is it Worth Being Good? – The Efficiency and Risk of Socially Responsible Investing in Light of Various Empirical Studies," Financial Internet Quarterly (formerly e-Finanse), Sciendo, vol. 13(3), pages 1-14, September.
    4. Alena Kocmanová & Marie Pavláková Dočekalová & Tomáš Meluzín & Stanislav Škapa, 2020. "Sustainable Investing Model for Decision Makers (Based On Research of Manufacturing Industry in the Czech Republic)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-27, October.
    5. Guillermo Badía & Luis Ferruz & Maria Céu Cortez, 2021. "The performance of social responsible investing from retail investors' perspective: international evidence," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 6074-6088, October.
    6. Panos Xidonas & Eric Essner, 2024. "On ESG Portfolio Construction: A Multi-Objective Optimization Approach," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 63(1), pages 21-45, January.
    7. Rui Coelho & Shital Jayantilal & Joao J. Ferreira, 2023. "The impact of social responsibility on corporate financial performance: A systematic literature review," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1535-1560, July.
    8. 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.
    9. José Luis Miralles-Quirós & María Mar Miralles-Quirós, 2020. "Who Knocks on the Door of Portfolio Performance Heaven: Sinner or Saint Investors?," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-18, November.
    10. Becchetti, Leonardo & Ciciretti, Rocco & Dalò, Ambrogio, 2018. "Fishing the Corporate Social Responsibility risk factors," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 25-48.
    11. Maretno A. Harjoto & Andreas G. F. Hoepner & Marcus A. Nilsson, 2022. "Bondholders’ returns and stakeholders’ interests," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(4), pages 1271-1301, November.
    12. Carmelo Reverte, 2012. "The Impact of Better Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure on the Cost of Equity Capital," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(5), pages 253-272, September.
    13. Gallucci, Carmen & Santulli, Rosalia & Lagasio, Valentina, 2022. "The conceptualization of environmental, social and governance risks in portfolio studies A systematic literature review," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    14. Patrícia Pereira & Maria Céu Cortez & Florinda Silva, 2019. "Socially responsible investing and the performance of Eurozone corporate bond portfolios," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(6), pages 1407-1422, November.
    15. Guillermo Badía & Maria C. Cortez & Luis Ferruz, 2020. "Socially responsible investing worldwide: Do markets value corporate social responsibility?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(6), pages 2751-2764, November.
    16. Irene Aldridge & Payton Martin, 2022. "ESG In Corporate Filings: An AI Perspective," Papers 2212.00018, arXiv.org.
    17. Takashi Kanamura, 2023. "Clean energy and (E)SG investing from energy and environmental linkages," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(9), pages 9779-9819, September.
    18. Luluk Widyawati, 2020. "A systematic literature review of socially responsible investment and environmental social governance metrics," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 619-637, February.
    19. Gregor Dorfleitner & Christian Kreuzer & Christian Sparrer, 2020. "ESG controversies and controversial ESG: about silent saints and small sinners," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(5), pages 393-412, September.
    20. Markus Arnold & Alexander Bassen & Ralf Frank, 2018. "Timing effects of corporate social responsibility disclosure: an experimental study with investment professionals," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 45-71, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sustainable finance; modern portfolio theory; Sharpe Ratio; ESG risk rating;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • 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

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iubhbm:72021. 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://www.iu.de/forschung/ .

    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.