IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/assmgt/v25y2024i7d10.1057_s41260-024-00381-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The performance of anti-ESG ETFs in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Gerasimos G. Rompotis

    (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)

Abstract

The performance of 18 equity Anti-ESG Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) traded in the USA is examined in this article. These ETFs seek to fulfill the needs of investors who believe that investing which seeks to meet the goals of various stakeholders by applying environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria does not align with the interests of shareholders. The performance of these ETFs is assessed against the S&P 500 Index and the iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF, which is one of the biggest ESG ETFs in the USA. Based on our results, most of the Anti-ESG ETFs fall short when compared to the broad market index and the selected ESG ETF. Underperformance is verified for the majority of Anti-ESG ETFs, both in terms of absolute and risk-adjusted return terms.

Suggested Citation

  • Gerasimos G. Rompotis, 2024. "The performance of anti-ESG ETFs in the United States," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(7), pages 700-713, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:assmgt:v:25:y:2024:i:7:d:10.1057_s41260-024-00381-0
    DOI: 10.1057/s41260-024-00381-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41260-024-00381-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41260-024-00381-0?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gerasimos G. Rompotis, 2022. "The ESG ETFs in the UK," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(2), pages 114-129, March.
    2. Zachary Folger-Laronde & Sep Pashang & Leah Feor & Amr ElAlfy, 2022. "ESG ratings and financial performance of exchange-traded funds during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 490-496, April.
    3. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2015. "A five-factor asset pricing model," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 1-22.
    4. Gerasimos G. Rompotis, 2023. "The Performance of ESG ETFs in the U.S," Capital Markets Review, Malaysian Finance Association, vol. 31(2), pages 89-101.
    5. Fiordelisi, Franco & Galloppo, Giuseppe & Lattanzio, Gabriele & Paimanova, Viktoriia, 2023. "Looking at socially responsible investment strategies through the lenses of the global ETF industry," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    6. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    7. Omura, Akihiro & Roca, Eduardo & Nakai, Miwa, 2021. "Does responsible investing pay during economic downturns: Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    8. Pavlova, Ivelina & de Boyrie, Maria E., 2022. "ESG ETFs and the COVID-19 stock market crash of 2020: Did clean funds fare better?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marszk, Adam & Lechman, Ewa, 2024. "What drives sustainable investing? Adoption determinants of sustainable investing exchange-traded funds in Europe," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 63-82.
    2. Hasan F. Baklaci & William I-Wei Cheng & Jianing Zhang, 2024. "Performance Attributes of Environmental, Social, and Governance Exchange-Traded Funds," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 31(2), pages 307-334, June.
    3. Carta, Nicola & Carta, Matteo & Rigoni, Ugo, 2024. "The countdown to carbon neutrality: Implications for passive investors," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
    4. Perote, Javier & Vicente-Lorente, José D. & Zuñiga-Vicente, Jose Angel, 2023. "How reactive is investment in US green bonds and ESG-eligible stocks in times of crisis? Exploring the COVID-19 crisis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    5. Igor Kravchuk, 2022. "Performance of Equity Fund Investment Strategies in Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-12, October.
    6. Gerasimos G. Rompotis, 2023. "The Performance of ESG ETFs in the U.S," Capital Markets Review, Malaysian Finance Association, vol. 31(2), pages 89-101.
    7. Dumitrescu, Ariadna & Järvinen, Jesse & Zakriya, Mohammed, 2023. "Hidden Gem or Fool’s Gold: Can passive ESG ETFs outperform the benchmarks?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    8. Wu, Yanran & Zhou, Riwang & Zhang, Chao, 2024. "Size and ESG premiums: Evidence from Chinese A-share market," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    9. Huang, Yujun, 2024. "Do ESG ETFs provide downside risk protection during Covid-19? Evidence from forecast combination models," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    10. Fang, Fei & Parida, Sitikantha, 2022. "Sustainable mutual fund performance and flow in the recent years through the COVID-19 pandemic," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    11. Shi, Huai-Long & Zhou, Wei-Xing, 2022. "Factor volatility spillover and its implications on factor premia," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    12. Eun, Cheol & Lee, Kyuseok & Wei, Fengrong, 2023. "Dual role of the country factors in international asset pricing: The local factors and proxies for the global factors," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    13. Blasques, F. & Francq, Christian & Laurent, Sébastien, 2024. "Autoregressive conditional betas," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 238(2).
    14. Chang, Xiaochen & Guo, Songlin & Huang, Junkai, 2022. "Kidnapped mutual funds: Irrational preference of naive investors and fund incentive distortion," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    15. Andrea Flori & Fabrizio Lillo & Fabio Pammolli & Alessandro Spelta, 2021. "Better to stay apart: asset commonality, bipartite network centrality, and investment strategies," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 299(1), pages 177-213, April.
    16. Cakici, Nusret & Zaremba, Adam, 2022. "Salience theory and the cross-section of stock returns: International and further evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 689-725.
    17. Cortez, Maria Céu & Andrade, Nuno & Silva, Florinda, 2022. "The environmental and financial performance of green energy investments: European evidence," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    18. Chue, Timothy K. & Gul, Ferdinand A. & Mian, G. Mujtaba, 2019. "Aggregate investor sentiment and stock return synchronicity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    19. Monica Martinez-Blasco & Vanessa Serrano & Francesc Prior & Jordi Cuadros, 2023. "Analysis of an event study using the Fama–French five-factor model: teaching approaches including spreadsheets and the R programming language," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 1-34, December.
    20. Bradrania, Reza & Veron, Jose Francisco, 2023. "The beta anomaly in the Australian stock market and the lottery demand," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ETFs; Anti-sustainable investing; Performances; Risk-adjusted return;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

    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:pal:assmgt:v:25:y:2024:i:7:d:10.1057_s41260-024-00381-0. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    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.