IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/rvmgts/v10y2016i2p303-344.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Vice versus virtue investing around the world

Author

Listed:
  • Sebastian Lobe
  • Christian Walkshäusl

Abstract

This paper assumes the role of advocatus diaboli by testing whether an investment in sin stocks can financially outperform an investment in socially responsible stocks. We create a set of global, regional, and domestic portfolios consisting of a large number of stocks belonging to what could be labeled as a sextet of sin: adult entertainment, alcohol, gambling, nuclear power, tobacco, and weapons. We assess the performance of sin stocks against well-known benchmarks, and rerun the identical assessment for socially responsible stocks. We find no compelling evidence that sin stocks, or socially responsible stocks outperform or underperform, and establish this result in several ways. Consistent with this finding, a hedge portfolio long in sin stocks and short in socially responsible stocks does not outperform the market, either. However, sin stocks are substantially tilted towards value, bear less market risk with an average beta below one, and are prone to momentum relative to socially responsible stocks. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

Suggested Citation

  • Sebastian Lobe & Christian Walkshäusl, 2016. "Vice versus virtue investing around the world," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 303-344, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:rvmgts:v:10:y:2016:i:2:p:303-344
    DOI: 10.1007/s11846-014-0147-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11846-014-0147-3
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11846-014-0147-3?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 search for a different version of it.

    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. 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.
    3. Fischer, Klaus & Khoury, Nabil, 2007. "The impact of ethical ratings on Canadian security performance: Portfolio management and corporate governance implications," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 40-54, March.
    4. Harvey, Campbell R, 1995. "Predictable Risk and Returns in Emerging Markets," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 8(3), pages 773-816.
    5. Eugene F. Fama & Kenneth R. French, 2008. "Dissecting Anomalies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1653-1678, August.
    6. Michael Schröder, 2007. "Is there a Difference? The Performance Characteristics of SRI Equity Indices," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1‐2), pages 331-348, January.
    7. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2012. "Size, value, and momentum in international stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(3), pages 457-472.
    8. John M. Griffin, 2002. "Are the Fama and French Factors Global or Country Specific?," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(3), pages 783-803.
    9. Alan Gregory & John Matatko & Robert Luther, 1997. "Ethical Unit Trust Financial Performance: Small Company Effects and Fund Size Effects," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(5), pages 705-725, June.
    10. Banz, Rolf W., 1981. "The relationship between return and market value of common stocks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 3-18, March.
    11. Merton, Robert C, 1987. "A Simple Model of Capital Market Equilibrium with Incomplete Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(3), pages 483-510, July.
    12. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2007. "Disagreement, tastes, and asset prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(3), pages 667-689, March.
    13. Andy C.W. Chui & Sheridan Titman & K.C. John Wei, 2010. "Individualism and Momentum around the World," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(1), pages 361-392, February.
    14. 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.
    15. Ledoit, Oliver & Wolf, Michael, 2008. "Robust performance hypothesis testing with the Sharpe ratio," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 850-859, December.
    16. 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.
    17. Ziegler, Andreas & Busch, Timo & Hoffmann, Volker H., 2011. "Disclosed corporate responses to climate change and stock performance: An international empirical analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 1283-1294.
    18. Newey, Whitney & West, Kenneth, 2014. "A simple, positive semi-definite, heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation consistent covariance matrix," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 33(1), pages 125-132.
    19. 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.
    20. Brown, Stephen J, et al, 1992. "Survivorship Bias in Performance Studies," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 5(4), pages 553-580.
    21. Hong, Harrison & Kacperczyk, Marcin, 2009. "The price of sin: The effects of social norms on markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 15-36, July.
    22. Peter S. Schmidt & Andreas Schrimpf & Urs von Arx & Alexander F. Wagner & Andreas Ziegler, 2011. "On the Construction of Common Size, Value and Momentum Factors in International Stock Markets: A Guide with Applications," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 11/141, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    23. Jobson, J D & Korkie, Bob M, 1981. "Performance Hypothesis Testing with the Sharpe and Treynor Measures," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 36(4), pages 889-908, September.
    24. Viale, Ariel M. & Kolari, James W. & Fraser, Donald R., 2009. "Common risk factors in bank stocks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 464-472, March.
    25. Benjamin Edelman, 2009. "Markets: Red Light States: Who Buys Online Adult Entertainment?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 209-220, Winter.
    26. Jegadeesh, Narasimhan & Titman, Sheridan, 1993. "Returns to Buying Winners and Selling Losers: Implications for Stock Market Efficiency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(1), pages 65-91, March.
    27. 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.
    28. Fama, Eugene F & French, Kenneth R, 1992. "The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 427-465, June.
    29. 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.
    30. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1997. "Industry costs of equity," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 153-193, February.
    31. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    32. Jegadeesh, Narasimhan, 1990. "Evidence of Predictable Behavior of Security Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(3), pages 881-898, July.
    33. Edmans, Alex, 2011. "Does the stock market fully value intangibles? Employee satisfaction and equity prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(3), pages 621-640, September.
    34. Alan Gregory & John Matatko & Robert Luther, 1997. "Ethical Unit Trust Financial Performance: Small Company Effects and Fund Size Effects," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(5), pages 705-725.
    35. Eugene F. Fama & Kenneth R. French, 2006. "The Value Premium and the CAPM," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(5), pages 2163-2185, October.
    36. Eun, Cheol S. & Lee, Jinsoo, 2010. "Mean-variance convergence around the world," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 856-870, April.
    37. 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).
    38. James Chong & Monica Her & G. Michael Phillips, 2006. "To sin or not to sin? Now that's the question," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(6), pages 406-417, March.
    39. 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.
    40. 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.
    41. Cooper, Michael J. & Jackson, William III & Patterson, Gary A., 2003. "Evidence of predictability in the cross-section of bank stock returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 817-850, May.
    42. 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.
    43. Ozgur S. Ince & R. Burt Porter, 2006. "Individual Equity Return Data From Thomson Datastream: Handle With Care!," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 29(4), pages 463-479, December.
    44. 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.
    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. Trinks, Arjan & Scholtens, Bert & Mulder, Machiel & Dam, Lammertjan, 2017. "Divesting Fossil Fuels: The Implications for Investment Portfolios," MPRA Paper 76383, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Weisskopf, Jean-Philippe, 2020. "Breaking bad: An investment in cannabis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 33(C).
    3. Gabriel Paradis & Eduardo Schiehll, 2021. "ESG Outcasts: Study of the ESG Performance of Sin Stocks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-18, August.
    4. Rahat, Birjees & Nguyen, Pascal, 2022. "Risk-adjusted investment performance of green and black portfolios and impact of toxic divestments in emerging markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    5. Al-Awadhi, Abdullah M. & Dempsey, Michael, 2017. "Social norms and market outcomes: The effects of religious beliefs on stock markets," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 119-134.
    6. Samuel Drempetic & Christian Klein & Bernhard Zwergel, 2020. "The Influence of Firm Size on the ESG Score: Corporate Sustainability Ratings Under Review," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(2), pages 333-360, November.
    7. Olofsson, Petter & Råholm, Anna & Uddin, Gazi Salah & Troster, Victor & Kang, Sang Hoon, 2021. "Ethical and unethical investments under extreme market conditions," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    8. Du, Linda Y.L. & Sun, Jianfei, 2023. "Washing away their stigma? The ESG of “Sin” firms," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(PB).
    9. 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.
    10. Lenz, Guido & Mayer, Maximilian, 2023. "Hollywood, Wall Street, and Mistrusting Individual Investors," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 117-138.
    11. Döpke, Jörg & Müller, Karsten & Tegtmeier, Lars, 2018. "The economic value of business cycle forecasts for potential investors – Evidence from Germany," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 445-461.
    12. Mihir Tirodkar & Henk Berkman, 2023. "Are polluters shunned? A study on the institutional ownership and returns of polluter stocks," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 58(3), pages 513-537, August.
    13. Trinks, Arjan & Scholtens, Bert & Mulder, Machiel & Dam, Lammertjan, 2017. "Divesting Fossil Fuels," Research Report 17001-EEF, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).

    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. Mollet, Janick Christian & Ziegler, Andreas, 2014. "Socially responsible investing and stock performance: New empirical evidence for the US and European stock markets," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 208-216.
    2. Janick Christian Mollet & Andreas Ziegler, 2014. "Socially responsible investing and stock performance: New empirical evidence for the US and European stock markets," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(4), pages 208-216, November.
    3. Lars Hornuf & Gül Yüksel, 2022. "The Performance of Socially Responsible Investments: A Meta-Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 9724, CESifo.
    4. 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.
    5. Walkshäusl, Christian & Lobe, Sebastian, 2010. "Fundamental indexing around the world," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 117-127, August.
    6. Janick Christian Mollet & Andreas Ziegler, 2012. "Is Socially Responsible Investing Really Beneficial? New Empirical Evidence for the US and European Stock Markets," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201228, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    7. Walkshäusl, Christian & Lobe, Sebastian, 2012. "Islamic investing," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 53-62.
    8. Cakici, Nusret & Zaremba, Adam, 2022. "Salience theory and the cross-section of stock returns: International and further evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 689-725.
    9. 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.
    10. Cakici, Nusret & Zaremba, Adam, 2021. "Liquidity and the cross-section of international stock returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    11. Cakici, Nusret & Zaremba, Adam, 2023. "Recency bias and the cross-section of international stock returns," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    12. Francisco José López-Arceiz & Ana José Bellostas-Pérezgrueso & José Mariano Moneva, 2018. "Evaluation of the Cultural Environment’s Impact on the Performance of the Socially Responsible Investment Funds," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 259-278, June.
    13. Halbritter, Gerhard & Dorfleitner, Gregor, 2015. "The wages of social responsibility — where are they? A critical review of ESG investing," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 25-35.
    14. Christian Walkshäusl & Sebastian Lobe, 2012. "Islamic investing," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(2), pages 53-62, April.
    15. 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.
    16. Christian Walkshäusl & Sebastian Lobe, 2010. "Fundamental indexing around the world," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(3), pages 117-127, August.
    17. Auer, Benjamin R. & Schuhmacher, Frank, 2016. "Do socially (ir)responsible investments pay? New evidence from international ESG data," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 51-62.
    18. Gbenga Ibikunle & Tom Steffen, 2017. "European Green Mutual Fund Performance: A Comparative Analysis with their Conventional and Black Peers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 145(2), pages 337-355, October.
    19. Belghitar, Yacine & Clark, Ephraim & Deshmukh, Nitin, 2014. "Does it pay to be ethical? Evidence from the FTSE4Good," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 54-62.
    20. Hanauer, Matthias X. & Lauterbach, Jochim G., 2019. "The cross-section of emerging market stock returns," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 265-286.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sin investments; Socially responsible investments; Performance evaluation; Performance attribution; G11; G12; G15; L64; L66; L82; L83; L94;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • L64 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Other Machinery; Business Equipment; Armaments
    • L66 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Food; Beverages; Cosmetics; Tobacco
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism
    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities

    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:spr:rvmgts:v:10:y:2016:i:2:p:303-344. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.