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The cost of sustainability in optimal portfolio decisions

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  • Stefano Herzel
  • Marco Nicolosi
  • Cătălin Stărică

Abstract

We examined the impact of including sustainability-related constraints in optimal portfolio decision-making. Our analysis covered an investment set containing the components of the S&P500 index from 1993 to 2008. Optimizations were performed according to the classic mean--variance approach, while sustainability constraints were introduced by eliminating, from the investment pool, those assets that do not comply with the given social responsibility criteria (screening). We compared the efficient frontiers with and without screening. The analysis focused on the three main dimensions of sustainability, namely the environmental, social and governance ones. We found that socially responsible screening gives rise to a small loss in terms of the Sharpe ratio even though it has a great impact on the market capitalization of the optimal portfolio. The spanning test showed that the ex-post differences between the two frontiers, when short selling is not allowed, are significant only in the case of environmental screening.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefano Herzel & Marco Nicolosi & Cătălin Stărică, 2012. "The cost of sustainability in optimal portfolio decisions," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3-4), pages 333-349, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eurjfi:v:18:y:2012:i:3-4:p:333-349
    DOI: 10.1080/1351847X.2011.587521
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    Cited by:

    1. Garcia-Bernabeu, Ana & Hilario-Caballero, Adolfo & Tardella, Fabio & Pla-Santamaria, David, 2024. "ESG integration in portfolio selection: A robust preference-based multicriteria approach," Operations Research Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 12(C).
    2. Marco Nicolosi & Stefano Grassi & Elena Stanghellini, 2014. "Item response models to measure corporate social responsibility," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(22), pages 1449-1464, November.
    3. Pirgaip, Burak & Arslan-Ayaydin, Özgür & Karan, Mehmet Baha, 2021. "Do Sukuk provide diversification benefits to conventional bond investors? Evidence from Turkey," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    4. Stoyan Kirov & Milena Beneva, 2024. "Mean-Variance Environmental Investment Optimization of Bulgarian Private Pension Funds," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 6, pages 88-112.
    5. Damiani, Mirella & Pompei, Fabrizio & Ricci, Andrea, 2011. "Temporary job protection and productivity growth in EU economies," MPRA Paper 29698, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Roy Cerqueti & Rocco Ciciretti & Ambrogio Dalò & Marco Nicolosi, 2022. "Mitigating Contagion Risk by ESG Investing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-13, March.
    7. Roy Cerqueti & Carmine Da Fermo & Marco Nicolosi, 2025. "Probabilities of transitions among endogenous regimes in asset returns and Environmental, Social and Governance scores," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 778-787, January.
    8. Rodrigo Zeidan & Claudio Boechat & Angela Fleury, 2015. "Developing a Sustainability Credit Score System," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(2), pages 283-296, March.
    9. Leonardo Becchetti & Francesco Salustri, 2019. "The Vote with the Wallet Game: Responsible Consumerism as a Multiplayer Prisoner’s Dilemma," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-22, February.
    10. Marco Nicolosi & Stefano Grassi & Elena Stanghellini, 2011. "How to measure Corporate Social Responsibility," Quaderni del Dipartimento di Economia, Finanza e Statistica 96/2011, Università di Perugia, Dipartimento Economia.
    11. Francesco Venturini, 2011. "Product variety, product quality, and evidence of Schumpeterian endogenous growth: a note," Quaderni del Dipartimento di Economia, Finanza e Statistica 93/2011, Università di Perugia, Dipartimento Economia.
    12. Boudt, Kris & Cornelissen, Jonathan & Croux, Christophe, 2013. "The impact of a sustainability constraint on the mean-tracking error efficient frontier," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 119(3), pages 255-260.
    13. 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.
    14. Cerqueti, Roy & Ciciretti, Rocco & Dalò, Ambrogio & Nicolosi, Marco, 2022. "A new measure of the resilience for networks of funds with applications to socially responsible investments," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 593(C).
    15. 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).
    16. Roy Cerqueti & Carmine da Fermo & Marco Nicolosi, 2024. "Probabilities of transitions among endogenous regimes in asset returns and Environmental, Social and Governance scores," Post-Print hal-05114157, HAL.
    17. Sabri Boubaker & Tu D. Q. Le & Riadh Manita & Thanh Ngo, 2025. "The trade-off frontier for ESG and Sharpe ratio: a bootstrapped double-frontier data envelopment analysis," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 347(1), pages 717-741, April.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

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