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Do investors use sustainable assets as carbon offsets?

Author

Listed:
  • Famulok, Jakob
  • Kormanyos, Emily
  • Worring, Daniel

Abstract

We present novel evidence that retail investors attempt offsetting their carbon footprints by investing sustainably. Using highly granular transaction data from bank clients, we find that higher footprints are linked to greener portfolios. In an experiment with clients from the same bank, we show that an exogenous shock to the participants' salience of their emissions causally shifts sustainable asset allocations upward. Finally, we identify a substitution effect between offsetting through donations and sustainable assets. Our findings add to an understanding of the behavioral drivers of sustainable investing, which is crucial to design effective policies aligning financial markets with environmental goals.

Suggested Citation

  • Famulok, Jakob & Kormanyos, Emily & Worring, Daniel, 2024. "Do investors use sustainable assets as carbon offsets?," SAFE Working Paper Series 431, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:safewp:306359
    DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4966257
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    sustainable investing; carbon footprints; green portfolios; retail investors; experimental finance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G40 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - General
    • G41 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making in Financial Markets
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments

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