Ethical investments and financial performance: An international evidence

Wajahat Azmi, Shamsher Mohamad and Mohamed Shah

Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, 2020, vol. 62, issue C

Abstract: This paper examines the financial performance of ethical funds in different regions and concludes that there is a cost attached to ethical investing. An analysis of 964 mutual funds comprising of Socially responsible funds (SRFs) and the Shariah-compliant equity funds (SCFs) suggests that: a) except for global funds, both types of funds underperform in the market, b) both types of funds are preferred for investment in growth and momentum stocks, c) SRFs are preferred for small capitalized stocks whereas SCFs do not follow any specific style or investment strategy, d) unlike SRFs, SCFs do not provide a safe haven for investors during crises. These findings are probably due to the lack of diversification opportunities and poor managerial skills. The results are robust to various asset pricing models and macroeconomic factors.

Keywords: Ethical funds; Performance evaluation; Macroeconomic factors; Shariah compliant funds; Socially responsible funds; Managerial skills (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 G11 G12 G20 G23 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927538X1730570X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:pacfin:v:62:y:2020:i:c:s0927538x1730570x

DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2019.05.005

Access Statistics for this article

Pacific-Basin Finance Journal is currently edited by K. Chan and S. Ghon Rhee

More articles in Pacific-Basin Finance Journal from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().