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Does it Really Hurt to be Responsible?

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  • Jacquelyn Humphrey
  • David Tan

Abstract

Prior literature on socially responsible investment has contended that excluding “sin stocks” from a portfolio (negative screening) will reduce performance and increase risk. Further, incorporating stocks of firms with positive social responsibility scores (positive screening) will improve performance and reduce risk. We simulate portfolios designed to mimic typical equity mutual funds’ holdings and investigate these propositions. We remove the potentially confounding influences of differences in manager skill, transaction costs and fees, and conduct a clean experiment on the effect of positive and negative portfolio screening. We find no difference in the return or risk of screened and unscreened portfolios. We conclude that a typical socially responsible fund will neither gain nor lose from screening its portfolio. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Jacquelyn Humphrey & David Tan, 2014. "Does it Really Hurt to be Responsible?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 122(3), pages 375-386, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:122:y:2014:i:3:p:375-386
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-013-1741-z
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Darren D. Lee & Jacquelyn E. Humphrey & Karen L. Benson & Jason Y. K. Ahn, 2010. "Socially responsible investment fund performance: the impact of screening intensity," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 50(2), pages 351-370, June.
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