Do Investors Care about Impact?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Heeb, Florian; Kolbel, Julian F.; Paetzold, Falko; Zeisberger, Stefan
• 署名单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); University of Zurich; University of St Gallen; Radboud University Nijmegen
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF FINANCIAL STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0893-9454
• DOI: 10.1093/rfs/hhac066
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 1737
• 关键词: impure altruism; public-goods; HOME BIAS; INFORMATION; utility

摘要

We assess how investors' willingness-to-pay (WTP) for sustainable investments responds to the social impact of those investments, using a framed field experiment. While investors have a substantial WTP for sustainable investments, they do not pay significantly more for more impact. This also holds for dedicated impact investors. When investors compare several sustainable investments, their WTP responds to relative, but not to absolute, levels of impact. Regardless of investments' impact, investors experience positive emotions when choosing sustainable investments. Our findings suggest that the WTP for sustainable investments is primarily driven by an emotional, rather than a calculative, valuation of impact.