IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/dcb93.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Four Facts About Esg Beliefs And Investor Portfolios

Author

Listed:
  • Giglio, Stefano
  • Maggiori, Matteo
  • Stroebel, Johannes
  • Tan, Zhenhao
  • Utkus, Stephen
  • Xu, Xiao

Abstract

We analyze survey data on ESG beliefs and preferences in a large panel of retail investors linked to administrative data on their investment portfolios. The survey elicits investors' expectations of long-term ESG equity returns and asks about their motivations, if any, to invest in ESG assets. We document four facts. First, investors generally expected ESG investments to underperform the market. Between mid-2021 and late-2022, the average expected 10-year annualized return of ESG investments relative to the overall stock market was $-1.4\%$. Second, there is substantial heterogeneity across investors in their ESG return expectations and their motives for ESG investing: 45\% of survey respondents do not see any reason to invest in ESG, 25\% are primarily motivated by ethical considerations, 22\% are driven by climate hedging motives, and 7\% are motivated by return expectations. Third, there is a link between individuals' reported ESG investment motives and their actual investment behaviors, with the highest ESG portfolio holdings among individuals who report ethics-driven investment motives. Fourth, financial considerations matter independently of other investment motives: we find meaningful ESG holdings only for investors who expect these investments to outperform the market, even among those investors who reported that their most important ESG investment motives were ethical or hedging reasons.

Suggested Citation

  • Giglio, Stefano & Maggiori, Matteo & Stroebel, Johannes & Tan, Zhenhao & Utkus, Stephen & Xu, Xiao, 2023. "Four Facts About Esg Beliefs And Investor Portfolios," SocArXiv dcb93, Center for Open Science.
  • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:dcb93
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/dcb93
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/64278ca08ef65b0ded42b225/
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/dcb93?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert F Engle & Stefano Giglio & Bryan Kelly & Heebum Lee & Johannes Stroebel, 2020. "Hedging Climate Change News," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(3), pages 1184-1216.
    2. Ströbel, Johannes & Wurgler, Jeffrey, 2021. "What do you think about climate finance?," CEPR Discussion Papers 16622, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Michael Bailey & Eduardo Dávila & Theresa Kuchler & Johannes Stroebel, 2019. "House Price Beliefs And Mortgage Leverage Choice," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(6), pages 2403-2452.
    4. Gunnar Friede & Timo Busch & Alexander Bassen, 2015. "ESG and financial performance: aggregated evidence from more than 2000 empirical studies," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 210-233, October.
    5. Samuel M. Hartzmark & Abigail B. Sussman, 2019. "Do Investors Value Sustainability? A Natural Experiment Examining Ranking and Fund Flows," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 74(6), pages 2789-2837, December.
    6. Heinkel, Robert & Kraus, Alan & Zechner, Josef, 2001. "The Effect of Green Investment on Corporate Behavior," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(4), pages 431-449, December.
    7. Arno Riedl & Paul Smeets, 2017. "Why Do Investors Hold Socially Responsible Mutual Funds?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(6), pages 2505-2550, December.
    8. Roland Bénabou & Jean Tirole, 2010. "Individual and Corporate Social Responsibility," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 77(305), pages 1-19, January.
    9. Stefano Giglio & Matteo Maggiori & Johannes Stroebel & Stephen Utkus, 2020. "Inside the Mind of a Stock Market Crash," CESifo Working Paper Series 8334, CESifo.
    10. Renneboog, Luc & Ter Horst, Jenke & Zhang, Chendi, 2011. "Is ethical money financially smart? Nonfinancial attributes and money flows of socially responsible investment funds," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 562-588, October.
    11. Georgij Alekseev & Stefano Giglio & Quinn Maingi & Julia Selgrad & Johannes Stroebel, 2022. "A Quantity-Based Approach to Constructing Climate Risk Hedge Portfolios," NBER Working Papers 30703, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. David P. Baron, 2001. "Private Politics, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Integrated Strategy," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(1), pages 7-45, March.
    13. Rui Albuquerque & Yrjö Koskinen & Chendi Zhang, 2019. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Risk: Theory and Empirical Evidence," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(10), pages 4451-4469, October.
    14. Martin L. Weitzman, 2012. "Rare Disasters, Tail-Hedged Investments, and Risk-Adjusted Discount Rates," NBER Working Papers 18496, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Shashwat Alok & Nitin Kumar & Russ Wermers & Harrison Hong, 2020. "Do Fund Managers Misestimate Climatic Disaster Risk," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(3), pages 1146-1183.
    16. Itay Goldstein & Alexandr Kopytov & Lin Shen & Haotian Xiang, 2022. "On ESG Investing: Heterogeneous Preferences, Information, and Asset Prices," NBER Working Papers 29839, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Opp, Marcus & Oehmke, Martin, 2020. "A theory of socially responsible investment," CEPR Discussion Papers 14351, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Philipp Krueger & Zacharias Sautner & Laura T Starks, 2020. "The Importance of Climate Risks for Institutional Investors," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(3), pages 1067-1111.
    19. Florian Berg & Julian F Kölbel & Roberto Rigobon, 2022. "Aggregate Confusion: The Divergence of ESG Ratings [Corporate social responsibility and firm risk: theory and empirical evidence]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(6), pages 1315-1344.
    20. Merton, Robert C, 1969. "Lifetime Portfolio Selection under Uncertainty: The Continuous-Time Case," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 51(3), pages 247-257, August.
    21. Harrison Hong & Neng Wang & Jinqiang Yang, 2021. "Welfare Consequences of Sustainable Finance," NBER Working Papers 28595, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Jacquelyn Humphrey & Shimon Kogan & Jacob Sagi & Laura Starks, 2021. "The Asymmetry in Responsible Investing Preferences," NBER Working Papers 29288, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. Rob Bauer & Tobias Ruof & Paul Smeets & Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, 2021. "Get Real! Individuals Prefer More Sustainable Investments [Explaining the discrepancy between intentions and actions: The case of hypothetical gap in contingent valuation]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(8), pages 3976-4043.
    24. Hong, Harrison & Kacperczyk, Marcin, 2009. "The price of sin: The effects of social norms on markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 15-36, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Campiglio, Emanuele & Lamperti, Francesco & Terranova, Roberta, 2024. "Believe me when I say green! Heterogeneous expectations and climate policy uncertainty," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    2. Cahen-Fourot, Louison & Campiglio, Emanuele & Daumas, Louis & Miess, Michael Gregor & Yardley, Andrew, 2023. "Stranding ahoy? Heterogeneous transition beliefs and capital investment choices," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 535-567.
    3. Gormsen, Niels Joachim & Huber, Kilian & Oh, Sangmin S., 2024. "Climate capitalists," Working Paper Series 2990, European Central Bank.
    4. Richard Bofinger & Simon Cornée & Ariane Szafarz, 2024. "When in Rome, Do as the Romans Do: Disclosure Regulation and ESG Fund Management by Social and Conventional Banks," Working Papers CEB 24-003, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    5. Alberto Montagnoli & Karl Taylor, 2024. "Who Cares about Investing Responsibly? Attitudes and Financial Decisions," Working Papers 2024010, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics.
    6. Bachmann, Kremena & Meyer, Julia & Krauss, Annette, 2024. "Investment motives and performance expectations of impact investors," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    7. Auzepy, Alix & Bannier, Christina E. & Gärtner, Florian, 2024. "Looking beyond ESG preferences: The role of sustainable finance literacy in sustainable investing," CFS Working Paper Series 719, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    8. Giglio, Stefano & Kuchler, Theresa & Stroebel, Johannes & Zeng, Xuran, 2023. "Biodiversity Risk," SocArXiv n7pbj, Center for Open Science.
    9. KEIDA Masayuki & TAKEDA Yosuke, 2024. "How Loud is a Soft Voice? Effects of positive screening of ESG performance on the Japanese oil companies," Discussion papers 24002, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    10. Benuzzi, Matteo & Klaser, Klaudijo & Bax, Karoline, 2024. "Which ESG+F dimension matters most to retail investors? An experimental study on financial decisions and future generations," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).

    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. Ferriani, Fabrizio, 2023. "Issuing bonds during the Covid-19 pandemic: Was there an ESG premium?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    2. Pástor, Ľuboš & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2021. "Sustainable investing in equilibrium," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 550-571.
    3. Montagnoli, Alberto & Taylor, Karl, 2024. "Who Cares about Investing Responsibly? Attitudes and Financial Decisions," IZA Discussion Papers 16952, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Hakenes, Hendrik & Schliephake, Eva, 2022. "Responsible Investment and Responsible Consumption," VfS Annual Conference 2022 (Basel): Big Data in Economics 264004, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    5. Po‐Hsuan Hsu & Kai Li & Chi‐Yang Tsou, 2023. "The Pollution Premium," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 78(3), pages 1343-1392, June.
    6. Hendrik Hakenes & Eva Schliephake, 2021. "Responsible Investment and Responsible Consumption," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 134, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    7. Staněk Gyönyör, Lucie & Horváth, Matúš, 2024. "Does ESG affect stock market dependence? An empirical exploration of S&P 1200 companies shows the divergent nature of E–S–G pillars," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    8. Huang, Chenchen & Luo, Di & Mukherjee, Soumyatanu & Mishra, Tapas, 2022. "To Acquire or to Ally? Managing Partners’ Environmental Risk in International Expansion," MPRA Paper 117591, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 07 Jan 2023.
    9. Luz, Valentin & Schauer, Victor & Viehweger, Martin, 2024. "Beyond preferences: Beliefs in sustainable investing," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 584-607.
    10. Steven D. Baker & Burton Hollifield & Emilio Osambela, 2022. "Asset Prices and Portfolios with Externalities [Pricedetermination in the EU ETS market: theory and econometric analysis with market fundamentals]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(6), pages 1433-1468.
    11. Gillan, Stuart L. & Koch, Andrew & Starks, Laura T., 2021. "Firms and social responsibility: A review of ESG and CSR research in corporate finance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    12. Bofinger, Yannik & Heyden, Kim J. & Rock, Björn, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility and market efficiency: Evidence from ESG and misvaluation measures," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    13. Ramelli, Stefano & Ossola, Elisa & Rancan, Michela, 2020. "Climate Sin Stocks: Stock Price Reactions to Global Climate Strikes," JRC Working Papers in Economics and Finance 2020-03, Joint Research Centre, European Commission.
    14. Zhang, Yuqian & Yang, Zhaojun, 2024. "Dynamic incentive contracts for ESG investing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    15. Eom, Yunsung & Kang, Young Dae & Sohn, Wook, 2024. "Is the Korean green premium in equilibrium?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 245-260.
    16. David Gilchrist & Jing Yu & Rui Zhong, 2021. "The Limits of Green Finance: A Survey of Literature in the Context of Green Bonds and Green Loans," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-12, January.
    17. Eisenkopf, Jana & Juranek, Steffen & Walz, Uwe, 2021. "Responsible investment and stock market shocks: Short-term insurance and persistent outperformance post-crisis?," SAFE Working Paper Series 329, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    18. Yihui Pan & Elena S. Pikulina & Stephan Siegel & Tracy Yue Wang, 2022. "Do Equity Markets Care about Income Inequality? Evidence from Pay Ratio Disclosure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(2), pages 1371-1411, April.
    19. Gutsche, Gunnar & Wetzel, Heike & Ziegler, Andreas, 2023. "Determinants of individual sustainable investment behavior - A framed field experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 491-508.
    20. Florian Heeb & Julian F Kölbel & Falko Paetzold & Stefan Zeisberger, 2023. "Do Investors Care about Impact?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 36(5), pages 1737-1787.

    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:osf:socarx:dcb93. 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: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.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.