IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/mes/emfitr/v58y2022i10p2927-2941.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does ESG Screening Enhance or Destroy Stock Portfolio Value? Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Zhihao Wang
  • Kezhi Liao
  • Yu Zhang

Abstract

This article investigates the impact of ESG screening on the portfolio value of four risk weighting models in the Chinese stock market from July 2012 to June 2019. Using a novel ESG rating data of CSI 300 composite stock, we show that: (i) ESG screening undermines the portfolio value of the equal-weighted (EW), value-weighted (VW), minimum variance (MVP), and reward-to-return (RRT) model. Portfolio models in the High-ESG group have the lowest out-of-sample return, Sharpe ratio, and cumulative wealth. (ii) After adjusting for asset pricing models, portfolio models in the High-ESG group generally produce the lowest out-of-sample risk-adjusted return per IVOL. (iii) ESG screening harms portfolio value by excluding stocks with favorable risk-return characteristics, leading to a conservative investment style, which is costly both for non-ESG-motivated and ESG-motivated investors. Our findings reveal that although ESG investment is becoming a significant trend, portfolio managers should be aware of the opportunity cost to apply ESG screening in emerging markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhihao Wang & Kezhi Liao & Yu Zhang, 2022. "Does ESG Screening Enhance or Destroy Stock Portfolio Value? Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(10), pages 2927-2941, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:mes:emfitr:v:58:y:2022:i:10:p:2927-2941
    DOI: 10.1080/1540496X.2021.2014317
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/1540496X.2021.2014317
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/1540496X.2021.2014317?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xiuli Sun & Cui Zhou & Zhuojiong Gan, 2023. "Green Finance Policy and ESG Performance: Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-27, April.
    2. Wang, Ren & Bian, Yuxiang & Xiong, Xiong, 2024. "Impact of ESG preferences on investments and emissions in a DSGE framework," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mes:emfitr:v:58:y:2022:i:10:p:2927-2941. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/MREE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.