IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/jau/wpaper/2016-03.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does socially responsible mutual fund performance vary over the business cycle? New insights on the role of ethical strategy focus and green industry idiosyncratic risk

Author

Listed:
  • Juan Carlos Matallín-Sáez

    (Department of Finance & Accounting, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain)

  • Amparo Soler-Domínguez

    (Department of Finance & Accounting, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain)

  • Emili Tortosa-Ausina

    (IVIE, Valencia and Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain)

Abstract

This paper analyses the performance of US social responsible (SR) mutual funds in relation to the fund’s ethical strategy focus and whether the business cycle is in a state of expansion or recession. Our results show that in aggregated terms the abnormal performance of SR funds is negative and there are no significant differences based on their ethical strategy focus: environmental, ESG, religious and undefined. In general we also find no significant differences in performance according the state of the business cycle. In terms of methodology our analysis shows the relevance of considering a benchmark to cover idiosyncratic risks linked to the asset classes in which the fund invests according to its ethical commitments. This effect is especially relevant in the case of environmental funds due to the poor performance of the renewable energy industry since the 2008 financial crisis as a result of changes in green government policy and lower oil prices. Thus, part of the mutual fund performance will not be linked to managers but rather to the behaviour of these asset classes.

Suggested Citation

  • Juan Carlos Matallín-Sáez & Amparo Soler-Domínguez & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2016. "Does socially responsible mutual fund performance vary over the business cycle? New insights on the role of ethical strategy focus and green industry idiosyncratic risk," Working Papers 2016/03, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    • Handle: RePEc:jau:wpaper:2016/03
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.doctreballeco.uji.es/wpficheros/Matallin_et_al_03_2016.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Robert Kosowski, 2011. "Do Mutual Funds Perform When It Matters Most to Investors? US Mutual Fund Performance and Risk in Recessions and Expansions," Quarterly Journal of Finance (QJF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 1(03), pages 607-664.
    3. Pastor, Lubos & Stambaugh, Robert F., 2002. "Mutual fund performance and seemingly unrelated assets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(3), pages 315-349, March.
    4. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    5. Renneboog, Luc & Ter Horst, Jenke & Zhang, Chendi, 2008. "The price of ethics and stakeholder governance: The performance of socially responsible mutual funds," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 302-322, June.
    6. C. Edward Chang & Walt A. Nelson & H. Doug Witte, 2012. "Do green mutual funds perform well?," Management Research Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(8), pages 693-708, July.
    7. Fernando Muñoz & Maria Vargas & Isabel Marco, 2014. "Environmental Mutual Funds: Financial Performance and Managerial Abilities," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(4), pages 551-569, November.
    8. Patricia Crifo & Vanina Forget, 2013. "Think Global, Invest Responsible: Why the Private Equity Industry Goes Green," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 116(1), pages 21-48, August.
    9. Mohamed Chelli & Yves Gendron, 2013. "Sustainability Ratings and the Disciplinary Power of the Ideology of Numbers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 187-203, January.
    10. André de Souza & Anthony W. Lynch, 2012. "Does Mutual Fund Performance Vary over the Business Cycle?," NBER Working Papers 18137, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Nelson Areal & Maria Cortez & Florinda Silva, 2013. "The conditional performance of US mutual funds over different market regimes: do different types of ethical screens matter?," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 27(4), pages 397-429, December.
    12. Andrea Chegut & Hans Schenk & Bert Scholtens, 2011. "Assessing SRI fund performance research: Best practices in empirical analysis," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(2), pages 77-94, March/Apr.
    13. Marcin Kacperczyk & Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh & Laura Veldkamp, 2014. "Time-Varying Fund Manager Skill," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(4), pages 1455-1484, August.
    14. Renneboog, Luc & Ter Horst, Jenke & Zhang, Chendi, 2008. "Socially responsible investments: Institutional aspects, performance, and investor behavior," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1723-1742, September.
    15. Javier Gil-Bazo & Pablo Ruiz-Verdú & André Santos, 2010. "The Performance of Socially Responsible Mutual Funds: The Role of Fees and Management Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 94(2), pages 243-263, June.
    16. 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.
    17. Nofsinger, John & Varma, Abhishek, 2014. "Socially responsible funds and market crises," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 180-193.
    18. 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.
    19. Cremers, Martijn & Petajisto, Antti & Zitzewitz, Eric, 2013. "Should Benchmark Indices Have Alpha? Revisiting Performance Evaluation," Critical Finance Review, now publishers, vol. 2(1), pages 1-48, July.
    20. Francisco Climent & Pilar Soriano, 2011. "Green and Good? The Investment Performance of US Environmental Mutual Funds," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 103(2), pages 275-287, October.
    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. Dumitrescu, Ariadna & Järvinen, Jesse & Zakriya, Mohammed, 2023. "Hidden Gem or Fool’s Gold: Can passive ESG ETFs outperform the benchmarks?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    2. Juan Carlos Matallín-Sáez & Amparo Soler-Domínguez & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2016. "Ethical strategy focus and mutual fund management: performance and persistence," Working Papers 2016/01, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    3. Ghoul, Sadok El & Karoui, Aymen, 2022. "Fund performance and social responsibility: New evidence using social active share and social tracking error," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    4. Lean, Hooi Hooi & Ang, Wei Rong & Smyth, Russell, 2015. "Performance and performance persistence of socially responsible investment funds in Europe and North America," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 254-266.
    5. Federica Ielasi & Monica Rossolini, 2019. "Responsible or Thematic? The True Nature of Sustainability-Themed Mutual Funds," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-17, June.
    6. Luis Ferruz & Fernando Muñoz & María Vargas, 2012. "Managerial Abilities: Evidence from Religious Mutual Fund Managers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 105(4), pages 503-517, February.
    7. Soler-Domínguez, Amparo & Matallín-Sáez, Juan Carlos, 2016. "Socially (ir)responsible investing? The performance of the VICEX Fund from a business cycle perspective," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 190-195.
    8. Łukasz Dopierała & Magdalena Mosionek-Schweda & Daria Ilczuk, 2020. "Does the Asset Allocation Policy Affect the Performance of Climate-Themed Funds? Empirical Evidence from the Scandinavian Mutual Funds Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-23, January.
    9. Lesser, Kathrin & Rößle, Felix & Walkshäusl, Christian, 2016. "Socially responsible, green, and faith-based investment strategies: Screening activity matters!," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 171-178.
    10. Leite, Paulo & Cortez, Maria Céu, 2015. "Performance of European socially responsible funds during market crises: Evidence from France," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 132-141.
    11. Azmi, Wajahat & Mohamad, Shamsher & Shah, Mohamed Eskandar, 2020. "Ethical investments and financial performance: An international evidence," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    12. Laura Fabregat-Aibar & M. Glòria Barberà-Mariné & Antonio Terceño & Laia Pié, 2019. "A Bibliometric and Visualization Analysis of Socially Responsible Funds," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-17, May.
    13. Amparo Soler‐Domínguez & Juan Carlos Matallín‐Sáez & Diego Víctor de Mingo‐López & Emili Tortosa‐Ausina, 2021. "Looking for sustainable development: Socially responsible mutual funds and the low‐carbon economy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1751-1766, May.
    14. Muñoz, Fernando, 2016. "Cash flow timing skills of socially responsible mutual fund investors," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 110-124.
    15. Lars Hornuf & Gül Yüksel, 2022. "The Performance of Socially Responsible Investments: A Meta-Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 9724, CESifo.
    16. Rathner, Sebastian, 2013. "The Relative Performance of Socially Responsible Investment Funds. New Evidence from Austria," Working Papers in Economics 2013-1, University of Salzburg.
    17. Kathrin Lesser & Sebastian Lobe & Christian Walkshäusl, 2014. "Green and socially responsible investing in international markets," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 15(5), pages 317-331, October.
    18. Xing Chen & Bert Scholtens, 2018. "The urge to act: A comparison of active and passive socially responsible investment funds in the United States," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(6), pages 1154-1173, November.
    19. Janusz Brzeszczyński & Graham McIntosh, 2014. "Performance of Portfolios Composed of British SRI Stocks," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 120(3), pages 335-362, March.
    20. Pablo Durán-Santomil & Luis Otero-González & Renato Heitor Correia-Domingues & Juan Carlos Reboredo, 2019. "Does Sustainability Score Impact Mutual Fund Performance?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-17, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mutual fund; performance; business cycle; environmental; ESG; SRI;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:jau:wpaper:2016/03. 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: María Aurora Garcia Gallego (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ueujies.html .

    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.