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Which investors support the transition toward a low-carbon economy? Exit and Voice in mutual funds

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  • Jonas Zink

    (University of Augsburg)

Abstract

Reducing portfolio carbon footprints (Exit) and voting in favor of climate-related shareholder proposals (Voice) are among the main actions that investors can take to promote an accelerated transition toward a low-carbon economy. This paper studies three important investor groups that can be instrumental in driving the transition and evaluates their Exit and Voice behavior. I find that the five largest asset managers perform poorly on Exit and Voice over the full sample period but improved on both in more recent years. Only a small fraction of signatories to sustainable investor initiatives are supportive of the transition. Counterintuitively, investors who perform poorly on Exit, perform well on Voice. Finally, I examine the financial consequences of employing Exit and Voice and find that Exit is positively related to risk-adjusted fund returns; however, this is not necessarily attributable to superior skill of fund managers.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonas Zink, 2024. "Which investors support the transition toward a low-carbon economy? Exit and Voice in mutual funds," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(2), pages 147-161, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:assmgt:v:25:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1057_s41260-023-00345-w
    DOI: 10.1057/s41260-023-00345-w
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Exit; Voice; Mutual funds; Climate change; Transition; Fund performance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

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