IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2307.12161.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Unraveling the Trade-off between Sustainability and Returns: A Multivariate Utility Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Marcos Escobar-Anel
  • Yiyao Jiao

Abstract

This paper proposes an expected multivariate utility analysis for ESG investors in which green stocks, brown stocks, and a market index are modeled in a one-factor, CAPM-type structure. This setting allows investors to accommodate their preferences for green investments according to proper risk aversion levels. We find closed-form solutions for optimal allocations, wealth and value functions. As by-products, we first demonstrate that investors do not need to reduce their pecuniary satisfaction in order to increase green investments. Secondly, we propose a parameterization to capture investors' preferences for green assets over brown or market assets, independent of performance. The paper uses the RepRisk Rating of U.S. stocks from 2010 to 2020 to select companies that are representative of various ESG ratings. Our empirical analysis reveals drastic increases in wealth allocation toward high-rated ESG stocks for ESG-sensitive investors; this holds even as the overall level of pecuniary satisfaction is kept unchanged.

Suggested Citation

  • Marcos Escobar-Anel & Yiyao Jiao, 2023. "Unraveling the Trade-off between Sustainability and Returns: A Multivariate Utility Analysis," Papers 2307.12161, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2307.12161
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.12161
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christophe Revelli & Jean-Laurent Viviani, 2015. "Financial performance of socially responsible investing (SRI): what have we learned? A meta-analysis," Post-Print halshs-01141295, HAL.
    2. Escobar-Anel, Marcos, 2022. "Multivariate risk aversion utility, application to ESG investments," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    3. Renneboog, Luc & Ter Horst, Jenke & Zhang, Chendi, 2008. "Socially responsible investments: Institutional aspects, performance, and investor behavior," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1723-1742, September.
    4. Gregor Dorfleitner & Michaela Leidl & Johannes Reeder, 2012. "Theory of social returns in portfolio choice with application to microfinance," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 13(6), pages 384-400, December.
    5. Derwall, Jeroen & Koedijk, Kees & Ter Horst, Jenke, 2011. "A tale of values-driven and profit-seeking social investors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 2137-2147, August.
    6. William Pasewark & Mark Riley, 2010. "It’s a Matter of Principle: The Role of Personal Values in Investment Decisions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 93(2), pages 237-253, May.
    7. Gregor Dorfleitner & Mai Nguyen, 2017. "A new approach for optimizing responsible investments dependently on the initial wealth," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(2), pages 81-98, March.
    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. Gregor Dorfleitner & Mai Nguyen, 2017. "A new approach for optimizing responsible investments dependently on the initial wealth," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(2), pages 81-98, March.
    2. Lars Hornuf & Gül Yüksel, 2022. "The Performance of Socially Responsible Investments: A Meta-Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 9724, CESifo.
    3. Ved Dilip Beloskar & S. V. D. Nageswara Rao, 2024. "Screening activity matters: Evidence from ESG portfolio performance from an emerging market," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(3), pages 2593-2619, July.
    4. Volker Lingnau & Florian Fuchs & Florian Beham, 2022. "The link between corporate sustainability and willingness to invest: new evidence from the field of ethical investments," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 335-369, September.
    5. Francesco Gangi & Jérôme Méric & Rémi Jardat & Lucia Michela Daniele, 2019. "Business for society," Post-Print hal-02382307, HAL.
    6. Julian Amon & Margarethe Rammerstorfer & Karl Weinmayer, 2021. "Passive ESG Portfolio Management—The Benchmark Strategy for Socially Responsible Investors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-21, August.
    7. Mario La Torre & Sabrina Leo & Ida Claudia Panetta, 2021. "Banks and environmental, social and governance drivers: Follow the market or the authorities?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(6), pages 1620-1634, November.
    8. Fernando Muñoz & María Vargas & Ruth Vicente, 2021. "Style-changing behaviour in the socially responsible mutual fund industry: consequences on financial and sustainable performance," Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 12(5), pages 1027-1051, February.
    9. Guillermo Badía & Maria C. Cortez & Luis Ferruz, 2020. "Socially responsible investing worldwide: Do markets value corporate social responsibility?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(6), pages 2751-2764, November.
    10. Utz, Sebastian & Wimmer, Maximilian & Hirschberger, Markus & Steuer, Ralph E., 2014. "Tri-criterion inverse portfolio optimization with application to socially responsible mutual funds," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 234(2), pages 491-498.
    11. Sabastian Utz & Maximillian Wimmer, 2014. "Are they any good at all? A financial and ethical analysis of socially responsible mutual funds," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 15(1), pages 72-82, February.
    12. Arnaud Gougler & Sebastian Utz, 2020. "Factor exposures and diversification: Are sustainably screened portfolios any different?," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 34(3), pages 221-249, September.
    13. 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).
    14. Mónica García-Melón & Blanca Pérez-Gladish & Tomás Gómez-Navarro & Paz Mendez-Rodriguez, 2016. "Assessing mutual funds’ corporate social responsibility: a multistakeholder-AHP based methodology," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 244(2), pages 475-503, September.
    15. Ahad, Muhammad & Imran, Zulfiqar Ali & Shahzad, Khurram, 2024. "Safe haven between European ESG and energy sector under Russian-Ukraine war: Role of sustainable investments for portfolio diversification," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    16. Leite, Brian J. & Uysal, Vahap B., 2023. "Does ESG matter to investors? ESG scores and the stock price response to new information," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    17. Costanza Torricelli & Beatrice Bertelli, 2022. "ESG screening strategies and portfolio performance: how do they fare in periods of financial distress?," Centro Studi di Banca e Finanza (CEFIN) (Center for Studies in Banking and Finance) 0087, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".
    18. Riikka Sievänen & Hannu Rita & Bert Scholtens, 2017. "European Pension Funds and Sustainable Development: Trade‐Offs between Finance and Responsibility," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(7), pages 912-926, November.
    19. Heena Thanki & Sweety Shah & Harishchandra Singh Rathod & Ankit D. Oza & Dumitru Doru Burduhos-Nergis, 2022. "I Am Ready to Invest in Socially Responsible Investments (SRI) Options Only If the Returns Are Not Compromised: Individual Investors’ Intentions toward SRI," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-17, September.
    20. Muñoz, Fernando, 2016. "Cash flow timing skills of socially responsible mutual fund investors," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 110-124.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:arx:papers:2307.12161. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.