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ESG Screening in the Fixed-Income Universe

Author

Listed:
  • Fabio Alessandrini

    (University of Lausanne; Banque Cantonale Vaudoise)

  • David Baptista Balula

    (University of Lausanne)

  • Eric Jondeau

    (University of Lausanne - Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC Lausanne); affiliation not provided to SSRN; Swiss Finance Institute)

Abstract

This paper evaluates the impact of a screening process based on Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) scores for an otherwise passive portfolio of investment-grade corporate bonds. The main result is that this filtering leads to a substantial improvement of the targeted ESG score without reducing the risk-adjusted performance but with significant biases in regional, sectoral, and risk factor exposures. We find that screening is very often associated with a substantial improvement in the risk profile. In particular, ESG-tilted portfolios lead to large negative exposure (i.e., protection) to credit risk. Screening based on the Environment score is where most of the reduction in risk takes place, making this criterion particularly relevant in moving the portfolio toward a more defensive composition. We demonstrate that screening at the regional and sectoral levels allows investors to eliminate undesirable regional and sectoral exposures while delivering similar ESG scores and risk-adjusted performances.

Suggested Citation

  • Fabio Alessandrini & David Baptista Balula & Eric Jondeau, 2021. "ESG Screening in the Fixed-Income Universe," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 21-77, Swiss Finance Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp2177
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate bonds; ESG investing; Portfolio construction; Bond risk factors;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development

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