IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v77y2025ics1544612325002363.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainable yet similar: Challenging the performance and risk assumptions of sustainable market indices

Author

Listed:
  • Leifhelm, Mathis
  • Klein, Christian
  • Scholz, Peter

Abstract

Sustainable market indices are pivotal in the sustainable finance industry. This study examines if such indices exhibit a lower ESG risk relative to their benchmarks. The reduction of ESG risk, quantified as the ESG beta based on multi-factor models, is a key motivator for investing in sustainable financial products. Analyzing over 300 index pairs, our findings reveal no significant ESG risk mitigation in sustainable indices compared to their benchmarks. Thus, these indices may not offer additional ESG risk protection to investors. Moreover, our results support previous studies suggesting a limited impact of broad sustainable financial products on the real economy.

Suggested Citation

  • 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).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:77:y:2025:i:c:s1544612325002363
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2025.106972
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612325002363
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2025.106972?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. Samuel M. Hartzmark & Abigail B. Sussman, 2019. "Do Investors Value Sustainability? A Natural Experiment Examining Ranking and Fund Flows," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 74(6), pages 2789-2837, December.
    2. Ulrich Atz & Tracy Van Holt & Zongyuan Zoe Liu & Christopher C. Bruno, 2023. "Does sustainability generate better financial performance? review, meta-analysis, and propositions," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 802-825, January.
    3. 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.
    4. Kandel, Shmuel & Stambaugh, Robert F, 1996. "On the Predictability of Stock Returns: An Asset-Allocation Perspective," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(2), pages 385-424, June.
    5. Bradford Cornell, 2021. "ESG preferences, risk and return," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 27(1), pages 12-19, January.
    6. Daniel Brodback & Nadja Guenster & David Mezger, 2019. "Altruism and egoism in investment decisions," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(1), pages 118-148, January.
    7. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    8. Pástor, Ľuboš & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2022. "Dissecting green returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 403-424.
    9. 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.
    10. Moinak Maiti, 2021. "Is ESG the succeeding risk factor?," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 199-213, July.
    11. 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.
    12. David Ardia & Keven Bluteau & Kris Boudt & Koen Inghelbrecht, 2023. "Climate Change Concerns and the Performance of Green vs. Brown Stocks," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(12), pages 7607-7632, December.
    13. 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.
    14. Pedersen, Lasse Heje & Fitzgibbons, Shaun & Pomorski, Lukasz, 2021. "Responsible investing: The ESG-efficient frontier," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 572-597.
    15. Horn, Matthias & Oehler, Andreas, 2024. "Constructing stock portfolios by sorting on ESG ratings: Does the rating provider matter?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).
    16. Rob Bauer & Tobias Ruof & Paul Smeets & Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, 2021. "Get Real! Individuals Prefer More Sustainable Investments [Explaining the discrepancy between intentions and actions: The case of hypothetical gap in contingent valuation]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(8), pages 3976-4043.
    17. Lioui, Abraham & Tarelli, Andrea, 2022. "Chasing the ESG factor," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    18. Aneesh Raghunandan & Shiva Rajgopal, 2022. "Do ESG funds make stakeholder-friendly investments?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 822-863, September.
    19. Olivier David Zerbib, 2022. "A Sustainable Capital Asset Pricing Model (S-CAPM): Evidence from Environmental Integration and Sin Stock Exclusion [Asset pricing with liquidity risk]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(6), pages 1345-1388.
    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. Li, Qianqian & Watts, Edward M. & Zhu, Christina, 2024. "Retail investors and ESG news," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(2).
    2. Horn, Matthias & Oehler, Andreas, 2024. "Constructing stock portfolios by sorting on ESG ratings: Does the rating provider matter?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).
    3. Lars Hornuf & Gül Yüksel, 2022. "The Performance of Socially Responsible Investments: A Meta-Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 9724, CESifo.
    4. Covachev, Svetoslav & Martel, Jocelyn & Brito-Ramos, Sofia, 2025. "Are ESG factors truly unique?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    5. Rudkin, Wanling & Cai, Charlie X. & Zhou, You, 2025. "Can we enhance investment with ESG?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    6. Janz, Catharina & Rilke, Rainer Michael & Burcin Yurtoglu, B., 2025. "Does ESG information impact individual investors’ portfolio choices?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    7. Roman Kräussl & Tobi Oladiran & Denitsa Stefanova, 2024. "A review on ESG investing: Investors’ expectations, beliefs and perceptions," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 476-502, April.
    8. Ferriani, Fabrizio, 2023. "Issuing bonds during the Covid-19 pandemic: Was there an ESG premium?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    9. Dunbar, Kwamie & Treku, Daniel & Sarnie, Robert & Hoover, Jack, 2023. "What does ESG risk premia tell us about mutual fund sustainability levels: A difference-in-differences analysis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    10. 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).
    11. Giglio, Stefano & Maggiori, Matteo & Stroebel, Johannes & Tan, Zhenhao & Utkus, Stephen & Xu, Xiao, 2025. "Four facts about ESG beliefs and investor portfolios," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    12. Alessi, Lucia & Ossola, Elisa & Panzica, Roberto, 2023. "When do investors go green? Evidence from a time-varying asset-pricing model," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    13. 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).
    14. Staněk Gyönyör, Lucie & Horváth, Matúš & Stašek, Daniel & Stachoň, Martin, 2025. "The role of ESG factor in stock clustering based on risk-return-liquidity dimensions," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    15. Saumitra Bhaduri & Ekta Selarka, 2024. "How Green (performance) are the Indian Green Stocks – Myth Vs Reality," Working Papers 2024-263, Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India.
    16. Long, Huaigang & Chiah, Mardy & Cakici, Nusret & Zaremba, Adam & Bilgin, Mehmet Huseyin, 2024. "ESG investing in good and bad times: An international study," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    17. Díaz, Antonio & Esparcia, Carlos & Alonso, Daniel & Alonso, Maria-Teresa, 2024. "Portfolio management of ESG-labeled energy companies based on PTV and ESG factors," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    18. Cortez, Maria Céu & Andrade, Nuno & Silva, Florinda, 2022. "The environmental and financial performance of green energy investments: European evidence," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    19. Ciciretti, Rocco & Dalò, Ambrogio & Dam, Lammertjan, 2023. "The contributions of betas versus characteristics to the ESG premium," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 104-124.
    20. Fan, Kwok Yuen & Shen, Jianfu & Hui, Eddie C.M. & Cheng, Louis T.W., 2024. "ESG components and equity returns: Evidence from real estate investment trusts," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).

    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:77:y:2025:i:c:s1544612325002363. 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.