IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v73y2025ics1544612324016386.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability labels matter

Author

Listed:
  • Kolling, Christopher
  • Busch, Timo

Abstract

We investigate whether funds holding a sustainability label, exhibit better sustainability performance compared to unlabeled funds. Using a sample of over 150 public equity funds awarded the FNG-Label, we assess their performance regarding carbon emissions, SDG scores, and ESG ratings. We use matching methods to compare labeled funds with different control groups, namely conventional as well as with sustainable peers without a label. The results show that labeled funds have superior sustainability attributes, particularly in terms of carbon emissions and SDG contributions. However, the differences in classical ESG scores, which in our case focus on financial materiality, are less pronounced.

Suggested Citation

  • Kolling, Christopher & Busch, Timo, 2025. "Sustainability labels matter," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:73:y:2025:i:c:s1544612324016386
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2024.106609
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612324016386
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2024.106609?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeroen Derwall & Kees Koedijk, 2009. "Socially Responsible Fixed‐Income Funds," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1‐2), pages 210-229, January.
    2. Shunsuke Managi & Tatsuyoshi Okimoto & Akimi Matsuda, 2012. "Do socially responsible investment indexes outperform conventional indexes?," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(18), pages 1511-1527, September.
    3. Jeroen Derwall & Kees Koedijk, 2009. "Socially Responsible Fixed-Income Funds," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1-2), pages 210-229.
    4. Gunnar Gutsche & Bernhard Zwergel, 2016. "Information barriers and SRI market participation – Can sustainability and transparency labels help?," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201624, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    5. 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.
    6. Martins, Adriel M.F. & Fernandes, Leonardo H.S. & Nascimento, Abraão D.C., 2023. "Scientific progress in information theory quantifiers," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    7. Raghunandan, Aneesh & Rajgopal, Shiva, 2022. "Do ESG funds make stakeholder-friendly investments?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115234, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Florian Berg & Julian F Kölbel & Roberto Rigobon, 2022. "Aggregate Confusion: The Divergence of ESG Ratings [Corporate social responsibility and firm risk: theory and empirical evidence]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(6), pages 1315-1344.
    9. Oecd, 2023. "Measuring progress towards inclusive capitalism in Japan," OECD Policy Insights on Well-being, Inclusion and Equal Opportunity 7, OECD Publishing.
    10. C. Edward Chang & H. Doug Witte, 2010. "Performance Evaluation of U.S. Socially Responsible Mutual Funds: Revisiting Doing Good and Doing Well," American Journal of Business, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 25(1), pages 9-24, April.
    11. Aneesh Raghunandan & Shiva Rajgopal, 2022. "Do ESG funds make stakeholder-friendly investments?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 822-863, September.
    12. John R. Nofsinger & Abhishek Varma, 2023. "Keeping Promises? Mutual Funds’ Investment Objectives and Impact of Carbon Risk Disclosures," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 187(3), pages 493-516, October.
    13. Das, Nandita & Chatterje, Swarn & Ruf, Bernadette & Sunder, Aman, 2018. "ESG Ratings and the Performance of Socially Responsible Mutual Funds: A Panel Study," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 17(1), pages 49-57.
    14. Xinlei Wu & Yuanpeng Zhang & Kaihang Shi & Xiaoling Ma & Fujun Zhang, 2023. "Advanced Progress of Organic Photovoltaics," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-3, January.
    15. Nofsinger, John & Varma, Abhishek, 2014. "Socially responsible funds and market crises," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 180-193.
    16. C. Edward Chang & H. Doug Witte, 2010. "Performance Evaluation of U.S. Socially Responsible Mutual Funds: Revisiting Doing Good and Doing Well," American Journal of Business, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 25(1), pages 9-21.
    17. Nella Canales & Richard J. T. Klein & Inès Bakhtaoui & Biljana Macura, 2023. "Assessing adaptation progress for the global stocktake," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 13(5), pages 413-414, May.
    18. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    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. Gibbon, Kayshani & Derwall, Jeroen & Gerritsen, Dirk & Koedijk, Kees, 2025. "Renaming with purpose: Investor response and fund manager behaviour after fund ESG renaming," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Leifhelm, Mathis & Klein, Christian & Scholz, Peter, 2025. "Sustainable yet similar: Challenging the performance and risk assumptions of sustainable market indices," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    5. Christine Reitmaier & Wolfgang Schultze & Julia Vollmer, 2025. "Corporate responsibility and corporate misbehavior: are CSR reporting firms indeed responsible?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 1804-1872, June.
    6. Francisco Climent & Paula Mollá & Pilar Soriano, 2020. "The Investment Performance of U.S. Islamic Mutual Funds," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-18, April.
    7. Mirza, Nawazish & Naeem, Muhammad Abubakr & Ha Nguyen, Thi Thu & Arfaoui, Nadia & Oliyide, Johnson A., 2023. "Are sustainable investments interdependent? The international evidence," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    8. Heena Thanki & Sweety Shah & Harishchandra Singh Rathod & Ankit D. Oza & Dumitru Doru Burduhos-Nergis, 2022. "I Am Ready to Invest in Socially Responsible Investments (SRI) Options Only If the Returns Are Not Compromised: Individual Investors’ Intentions toward SRI," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-17, September.
    9. Li, Qianqian & Watts, Edward M. & Zhu, Christina, 2024. "Retail investors and ESG news," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(2).
    10. 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.
    11. Saiful Arefeen & Koji Shimada, 2020. "Performance and Resilience of Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) and Conventional Funds during Different Shocks in 2016: Evidence from Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-20, January.
    12. Maike van Dijk-de Groot & Andre H.J. Nijhof, 2015. "Socially Responsible Investment Funds: a review of research priorities and strategic options," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(3), pages 178-204, July.
    13. Andre Höck & Tobias Bauckloh & Maurice Dumrose & Christian Klein, 2023. "ESG criteria and the credit risk of corporate bond portfolios," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(7), pages 572-580, December.
    14. Blankenberg, Ann-Kathrin & Gottschalk, Jonas F. A., 2018. "Is socially responsible investing (SRI) in stocks a competitive capital investment? A comparative analysis based on the performance of sustainable stocks," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 349, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    15. Lean, Hooi Hooi & Ang, Wei Rong & Smyth, Russell, 2015. "Performance and performance persistence of socially responsible investment funds in Europe and North America," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 254-266.
    16. Bertrand Candelon & Jean-Baptiste Hasse & Quentin Lajaunie, 2021. "ESG-Washing in the Mutual Funds Industry? From Information Asymmetry to Regulation," Risks, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-23, November.
    17. Rehman, Mobeen Ur & Ahmad, Nasir & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2022. "Asymmetric multifractal behaviour and network connectedness between socially responsible stocks and international oil before and during COVID-19," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 587(C).
    18. Wang, Wenjiao & Sun, Ziyuan & Wang, Lan, 2025. "Does ESG rating divergence exacerbate management tone manipulation? − Empirical evidence based on MD&A text," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    19. Yuwen Dai, 2025. "Sustainable investing in emerging markets: Evidence from the Sustainable Stock Exchanges initiative," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 2001-2015, April.
    20. Lestari, Jenjang Sri & Frömmel, Michael, 2024. "Socially responsible investments: doing good while doing well in developed versus emerging markets?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:eee:finlet:v:73:y:2025:i:c:s1544612324016386. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    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.