IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/acctfi/v50y2010i2p351-370.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Socially responsible investment fund performance: the impact of screening intensity

Author

Listed:
  • Darren D. Lee
  • Jacquelyn E. Humphrey
  • Karen L. Benson
  • Jason Y. K. Ahn

Abstract

Perhaps the most common criticism of socially responsible investment funds is that imposing non‐financial screens restricts investment opportunities, reduces diversification efficiencies and thereby adversely impacts performance. In this study we investigate this proposition and test whether the number of screens employed has a linear or curvilinear relation with return. Moreover, we analyse the link between screening intensity and risk. Screening intensity has no effect on unadjusted (raw) returns or idiosyncratic risk. However, we find a significant reduction in α of 70 basis points per screen using the Carhart performance model. Increased screening results in lower systematic risk – in line with managers choosing lower β stocks to minimize overall risk.

Suggested Citation

  • Darren D. Lee & Jacquelyn E. Humphrey & Karen L. Benson & Jason Y. K. Ahn, 2010. "Socially responsible investment fund performance: the impact of screening intensity," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 50(2), pages 351-370, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:50:y:2010:i:2:p:351-370
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-629X.2009.00336.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-629X.2009.00336.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-629X.2009.00336.x?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael C. Jensen, 1968. "The Performance Of Mutual Funds In The Period 1945–1964," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(2), pages 389-416, May.
    2. John Y. Campbell & Martin Lettau & Burton G. Malkiel & Yexiao Xu, 2001. "Have Individual Stocks Become More Volatile? An Empirical Exploration of Idiosyncratic Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(1), pages 1-43, February.
    3. repec:bla:jfinan:v:55:y:2000:i:4:p:1655-1703 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. 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.
    5. Admati, Anat R & Ross, Stephen A, 1985. "Measuring Investment Performance in a Rational Expectations Equilibrium Model," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(1), pages 1-26, January.
    6. Tsjalle Van Der Burg & Aloys Prinz, 2006. "Empowering small shareholders: a comparison of three instruments," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(5), pages 406-417, September.
    7. Bauer, Rob & Koedijk, Kees & Otten, Roger, 2005. "International evidence on ethical mutual fund performance and investment style," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(7), pages 1751-1767, July.
    8. Greg Filbeck & Raymond Gorman & Xin Zhao, 2009. "The “Best Corporate Citizens”: Are They Good for Their Shareholders?," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 44(2), pages 239-262, May.
    9. James, Christopher & Karceski, Jason, 2006. "Investor monitoring and differences in mutual fund performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(10), pages 2787-2808, October.
    10. Joakim Sandberg & Carmen Juravle & Ted Hedesström & Ian Hamilton, 2009. "The Heterogeneity of Socially Responsible Investment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(4), pages 519-533, July.
    11. Travis Sapp & Xuemin (Sterling) Yan, 2008. "Security Concentration and Active Fund Management: Do Focused Funds Offer Superior Performance?," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 43(1), pages 27-49, February.
    12. Zakri Y. Bello, 2005. "Socially Responsible Investing And Portfolio Diversification," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 28(1), pages 41-57, March.
    13. Blake, Christopher R & Elton, Edwin J & Gruber, Martin J, 1993. "The Performance of Bond Mutual Funds," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 66(3), pages 370-403, July.
    14. Darren D. Lee & Robert W. Faff, 2009. "Corporate Sustainability Performance and Idiosyncratic Risk: A Global Perspective," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 44(2), pages 213-237, May.
    15. 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 1655-1695, August.
    16. Rogér Otten & Dennis Bams, 2004. "How to measure mutual fund performance: economic versus statistical relevance," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 44(2), pages 203-222, July.
    17. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    18. Chan, Howard W. & Faff, Robert W., 2003. "An investigation into the role of liquidity in asset pricing: Australian evidence," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 11(5), pages 555-572, November.
    19. Fama, Eugene F, 1972. "Components of Investment Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 27(3), pages 551-567, June.
    20. Ferson, Wayne E & Schadt, Rudi W, 1996. "Measuring Fund Strategy and Performance in Changing Economic Conditions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(2), pages 425-461, June.
    21. Joseph Chen & Harrison Hong & Ming Huang & Jeffrey D. Kubik, 2004. "Does Fund Size Erode Mutual Fund Performance? The Role of Liquidity and Organization," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(5), pages 1276-1302, December.
    22. Kon, Stanley J & Jen, Frank C, 1978. "Estimation of Time-Varying Systematic Risk and Performance for Mutual Fund Portfolios: An Application of Switching Regression," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 33(2), pages 457-475, May.
    23. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    24. Jonathan Fletcher, 2007. "Can Asset Pricing Models Price Idiosyncratic Risk in U.K. Stock Returns?," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 42(4), pages 507-535, November.
    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. 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.
    2. Janusz Brzeszczyński & Graham McIntosh, 2014. "Performance of Portfolios Composed of British SRI Stocks," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 120(3), pages 335-362, March.
    3. Amaral, Fatima & Reis, Pedro & Pinto, Pedro, 2019. "Evaluating investment fund performance in Portugal," Business and Economic Horizons (BEH), Prague Development Center (PRADEC), vol. 15(2).
    4. 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.
    5. Laura Fabregat-Aibar & M. Glòria Barberà-Mariné & Antonio Terceño & Laia Pié, 2019. "A Bibliometric and Visualization Analysis of Socially Responsible Funds," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-17, May.
    6. Fadillah Mansor & M. Ishaq Bhatti & Shafiqur Rahman & Hung Quang Do, 2020. "The Investment Performance of Ethical Equity Funds in Malaysia," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-14, September.
    7. Jacquelyn Humphrey & Darren Lee, 2011. "Australian Socially Responsible Funds: Performance, Risk and Screening Intensity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 102(4), pages 519-535, September.
    8. Lars Hornuf & Gül Yüksel, 2022. "The Performance of Socially Responsible Investments: A Meta-Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 9724, CESifo.
    9. Hassan, M. Kabir & Girard, Eric, 2010. "Faith-Based Ethical Investing: The Case Of Dow Jones Islamic Indexes," Islamic Economic Studies, The Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI), vol. 17, pages 1-31.
    10. Łukasz Dopierała & Magdalena Mosionek-Schweda & Daria Ilczuk, 2020. "Does the Asset Allocation Policy Affect the Performance of Climate-Themed Funds? Empirical Evidence from the Scandinavian Mutual Funds Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-23, January.
    11. Darren D. Lee & John Hua Fan & Victor S. H. Wong, 2021. "No more excuses! Performance of ESG‐integrated portfolios in Australia," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(S1), pages 2407-2450, April.
    12. 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.
    13. Martin Rohleder, 2015. "The Relation between Past Flows and Future Performance: Simple Investment Strategies in the Mutual Fund Sector," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-28, February.
    14. Andrew Clare & Mariana Clare, 2019. "An examination of ex ante fund performance: identifying indicators of future performance," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(3), pages 175-195, May.
    15. Savov, Alexi, 2014. "The price of skill: Performance evaluation by households," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(2), pages 213-231.
    16. Derwall, Jeroen & Koedijk, Kees & Ter Horst, Jenke, 2011. "A tale of values-driven and profit-seeking social investors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 2137-2147, August.
    17. Muhammad Sali Maheen, 2021. "Impact of COVID-19 on the performance of emerging market mutual funds: evidence from India," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-8, December.
    18. Martin Rohleder & Hendrik Scholz & Marco Wilkens, 2010. "Survivorship Bias and Mutual Fund Performance: Relevance, Significance, and Methodical Differences," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 15(2), pages 441-474.
    19. Glode, Vincent, 2011. "Why mutual funds "underperform"," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(3), pages 546-559, March.
    20. Alsubaiei, Bader Jawid & Calice, Giovanni & Vivian, Andrew, 2024. "How does oil market volatility impact mutual fund performance?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(PA), pages 1601-1621.

    More about this item

    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:bla:acctfi:v:50:y:2010:i:2:p:351-370. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaanzea.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.