IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2403.11622.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Asset management with an ESG mandate

Author

Listed:
  • Michele Azzone
  • Emilio Barucci
  • Davide Stocco

Abstract

We investigate the portfolio frontier and risk premia in equilibrium when an institutional investor aims to minimize the tracking error variance and to attain an ESG score higher than the benchmark's one (ESG mandate). Provided that a negative ESG premium for stocks is priced by the market, we show that an ESG mandate can reduce the mean-variance inefficiency of the portfolio frontier when the asset manager targets a limited over-performance with respect to the benchmark. Instead, for a high over-performance target, an ESG mandate leads to a higher variance. The mean-variance improvement is due to the fact that the ESG mandate induces the asset manager to over-invest in assets with a high mean-standard deviation ratio. In equilibrium, with asset managers and mean-variance investors, a negative ESG premium arises if the ESG mandate is binding for asset managers. A result that is borne out by the data.

Suggested Citation

  • Michele Azzone & Emilio Barucci & Davide Stocco, 2024. "Asset management with an ESG mandate," Papers 2403.11622, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2403.11622
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2403.11622
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. George Serafeim & Aaron Yoon, 2023. "Stock price reactions to ESG news: the role of ESG ratings and disagreement," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 1500-1530, September.
    2. Brennan, Michael J., 1993. "Agency and Asset Pricing," University of California at Los Angeles, Anderson Graduate School of Management qt53k014sd, Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA.
    3. Juan-Pedro Gomez & Fernando Zapatero, 2003. "Asset pricing implications of benchmarking: a two-factor CAPM," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(4), pages 343-357.
    4. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2015. "A five-factor asset pricing model," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 1-22.
    5. Bradford Cornell, 2021. "ESG preferences, risk and return," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 27(1), pages 12-19, January.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. Michael J. Brennan & Xiaolong Cheng & Feifei Li, 2012. "Agency and Institutional Investment," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 18(1), pages 1-27, January.
    9. Alexander, Gordon J. & Baptista, Alexandre M., 2010. "Active portfolio management with benchmarking: A frontier based on alpha," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 2185-2197, September.
    10. Lioui, Abraham & Tarelli, Andrea, 2022. "Chasing the ESG factor," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    11. Avramov, Doron & Cheng, Si & Lioui, Abraham & Tarelli, Andrea, 2022. "Sustainable investing with ESG rating uncertainty," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 642-664.
    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. Mohanasundaram, S. & Kasilingam, R., 2024. "The sustainability factor in asset pricing: Empirical evidence from the Indian market," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 206-213.
    2. Ling, Aifan & Li, Jinlong & Zhang, Yugui, 2023. "Can firms with higher ESG ratings bear higher bank systemic tail risk spillover?—Evidence from Chinese A-share market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    3. Ling, Aifan & Li, Junxue & Wen, Limin & Zhang, Yi, 2023. "When trackers are aware of ESG: Do ESG ratings matter to tracking error portfolio performance?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    4. Yu, Haixu & Liang, Chuanyu & Liu, Zhaohua & Wang, He, 2023. "News-based ESG sentiment and stock price crash risk," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    5. Lars Hornuf & Gül Yüksel, 2022. "The Performance of Socially Responsible Investments: A Meta-Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 9724, CESifo.
    6. Zou, Jin & Yan, Jingzhou & Deng, Guoying, 2023. "ESG rating confusion and bond spreads," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    7. Pástor, Ľuboš & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2022. "Dissecting green returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 403-424.
    8. Rojo-Suárez, Javier & Alonso-Conde, Ana B., 2024. "Have shifts in investor tastes led the market portfolio to capture ESG preferences?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    9. Kashyap, Anil K & Kovrijnykh, Natalia & Li, Jian & Pavlova, Anna, 2021. "The benchmark inclusion subsidy," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 756-774.
    10. 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).
    11. Caterina Lucarelli & Sabrina Severini, 2024. "Anatomy of the chimera: Environmental, Social, and Governance ratings beyond the myth," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(5), pages 4198-4217, July.
    12. Wang, Ren & Bian, Yuxiang & Xiong, Xiong, 2024. "Impact of ESG preferences on investments and emissions in a DSGE framework," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    13. Alexander, Gordon J. & Baptista, Alexandre M., 2011. "Portfolio selection with mental accounts and delegation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 2637-2656, October.
    14. Bang, Jeongseok & Ryu, Doojin, 2024. "ESG factors and the cross-section of expected stock returns: A LASSO-based approach," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    15. Liu, Xufeng & Wan, Die, 2023. "Retail investor trading and ESG pricing in China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    16. Jian Zhou & Xiaodong Lei & Jianglong Yu, 2024. "ESG rating divergence and corporate green innovation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 2911-2930, May.
    17. Michele Azzone & Maria Chiara Pocelli & Davide Stocco, 2023. "Hedging carbon risk with a network approach," Papers 2311.12450, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2024.
    18. Chen, Zhongfei & Xie, Guanxia, 2022. "ESG disclosure and financial performance: Moderating role of ESG investors," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    19. Kvam, Emilie & Molnar, Peter & Wankel, Ingvild & Odegaard, Bernt Arne, 2022. "Do sustainable company stock prices increase with ESG scrutiny? Evidence using social media," UiS Working Papers in Economics and Finance 2022/1, University of Stavanger.
    20. Luo, Di & Farag, Hisham, 2024. "ESG and aggregate disagreement," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).

    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:arx:papers:2403.11622. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.