Do Investors Value Sustainability? A Natural Experiment Examining Ranking and Fund Flows

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hartzmark, Samuel M.; Sussman, Abigail B.
• 署名单位: University of Chicago
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1082
• DOI: 10.1111/jofi.12841
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 2789-2837
• 关键词: corporate social-responsibility; matching estimators; impure altruism; demand curves; Mutual funds; RISK; performance; SALIENCE; context; perception

摘要

Examining a shock to the salience of the sustainability of the U.S. mutual fund market, we present causal evidence that investors marketwide value sustainability: being categorized as low sustainability resulted in net outflows of more than $12 billion while being categorized as high sustainability led to net inflows of more than $24 billion. Experimental evidence suggests that sustainability is viewed as positively predicting future performance, but we do not find evidence that high-sustainability funds outperform low-sustainability funds. The evidence is consistent with positive affect influencing expectations of sustainable fund performance and nonpecuniary motives influencing investment decisions.