Sustainable Investing in Equilibrium

Lubos Pastor, Robert Stambaugh and Lucian Taylor
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Lucian Taylor: University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School and NBER

No 2020-23, Working Papers from Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics

Abstract: We present a model of investing based on environmental, social, and gover- nance (ESG) criteria. In equilibrium, green assets have negative CAPM alphas, whereas brown assets have positive alphas. Green assets’ negative alphas stem from investors’ preference for green holdings and from green stocks’ ability to hedge climate risk. Green assets can nevertheless outperform brown ones during good performance of the ESG factor, which captures shifts in customers’ tastes for green products and investors’ tastes for green holdings. The latter tastes pro- duce positive social impact by making firms greener and shifting real investment from brown to green firms. The ESG investment industry is at its largest, and the alphas of ESG-motivated investors are at their lowest, when there is large dispersion in investors’ ESG preferences.

Keywords: sustainable investing; socially responsible investing; ESG; social impact (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G11 G12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 54 pages
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env and nep-res
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (61)

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https://repec.bfi.uchicago.edu/RePEc/pdfs/BFI_WP_202024.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Sustainable investing in equilibrium (2021)
Working Paper: Sustainable Investing in Equilibrium (2019)
Working Paper: Sustainable Investing in Equilibrium (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bfi:wpaper:2020-24

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