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Do ESG funds make stakeholder-friendly investments?

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  • Raghunandan, Aneesh
  • Rajgopal, Shiva

Abstract

Investment funds that claim to focus on socially responsible stocks have proliferated in recent times. In this paper, we verify whether ESG mutual funds actually invest in firms that have stakeholder-friendly track records. Using a comprehensive sample of self-labelled ESG mutual funds (as identified by Morningstar) in the United States from 2010 to 2018, we find that these funds hold portfolio firms with worse track records for compliance with labor and environmental laws, relative to portfolio firms held by non-ESG funds managed by the same financial institutions in the same years. Relative to other funds offered by the same asset managers in the same years, ESG funds hold stocks that are more likely to voluntarily disclose carbon emissions performance but also stocks with higher carbon emissions per unit of revenue. Despite these findings, ESG funds hold portfolio firms with higher average ESG scores. We show that ESG scores are correlated with the quantity of voluntary ESG-related disclosures but not with firms’ compliance records or actual levels of carbon emissions. Finally, ESG funds appear to underperform financially relative to other funds within the same asset manager and year, and to charge higher fees. Our findings suggest that socially responsible funds do not appear to follow through on proclamations of concerns for stakeholders.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:115234
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/115234/
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Zhang, Dongyang, 2023. "Does green finance really inhibit extreme hypocritical ESG risk? A greenwashing perspective exploration," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    3. Costantiello, Alberto & Leogrande, Angelo, 2023. "The Determinants of CO2 Emissions in the Context of ESG Models at World Level," MPRA Paper 117110, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Liliana Rivera & Norma Ortiz & Gabriel Moreno & Iliana Páez-Gabriunas, 2023. "The Effect of Company Ownership on the Environmental Practices in the Supply Chain: An Empirical Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-24, August.
    5. Alexandre Momparler & Pedro Carmona & Francisco Climent, 2025. "Catalyzing Sustainable Investment: Revealing ESG Power in Predicting Fund Performance with Machine Learning," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 65(3), pages 1617-1642, March.
    6. Otchere, Isaac & Abdulrahman, Adam & Wang, Jun, 2025. "Environmental, social, and governance investing and sustainability of pension funds: Evidence from the organisation for economic cooperation and development countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
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    8. Heena Thanki & Sweety Shah & Harishchandra Singh Rathod & Ankit D. Oza & Dumitru Doru Burduhos-Nergis, 2022. "I Am Ready to Invest in Socially Responsible Investments (SRI) Options Only If the Returns Are Not Compromised: Individual Investors’ Intentions toward SRI," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-17, September.
    9. Hashimoto, Tom & Huettinger, Maik, 2024. "Moral sentiments and sustainable finance: A proposal for new market segmentation," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 42(6), pages 855-863.
    10. Li, Qianqian & Watts, Edward M. & Zhu, Christina, 2024. "Retail investors and ESG news," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(2).
    11. Gülfen Tuna & Kaan Türkay & Saim Saner Çiftyildiz & Hülya Çelik, 2024. "The impact of financial tools in environmental degradation management: the relationship between Co2 emission and ESG funds," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(6), pages 14941-14956, June.
    12. Chun Cai & Saddam A Hazaea & Maha Faisal Alsayegh & Muskan Sahu & Moodhi Raid & Waleed M Al‐ahdal, 2024. "Media coverage as a moderator in the nexus between audit quality and ESG performance: Evidence from China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(10), pages 1-25, October.
    13. Mariya Gubareva & Zaghum Umar & Tatiana Sokolova & Valentina Antonyuk, 2023. "For whom does it pay to be a moral capitalist? Sustainability of corporate financial performance of ESG investment," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(5), pages 1-14, May.
    14. Inigo Martin-Melero & Raul Gomez-Martinez & Maria Luisa Medrano-Garcia & Felipe Hernandez-Perlines, 2025. "Comparison of sectorial and financial data for ESG scoring of mutual funds with machine learning," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 11(1), pages 1-31, December.
    15. Thomas Url, 2022. "Die gesamtwirtschaftliche Bedeutung der österreichischen Versicherungswirtschaft," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 69819, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    social responsibility; ESG; SEC; environmental and labor laws; mutual fund; violation tracker;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility

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