Seminar

Organizers:

Date:

February 22, 2023

Time:

7:00 PM

Fee:

Free

Location:

AULA, University of Aruba

The development of socially responsible investing: A review

Description
In the last decades Socially Responsible Investments (SRI) have been rising at significant rates, reaching almost 30 per cent of globally managed assets in 2020. This trend has attracted increasing attention from several branches of studies. In this lecture we provide a survey of the most relevant findings of both theoretical and empirical economic literature on SRI. In fact, until recent years most studies have been focusing on the performance of SRI portfolios relative to more traditional financial assets, with scarce attention to the theoretical foundations and thus overlooking the whole set of SRI potential implications for the economy. Recently, few works have started bridging this gap, although results are still sparse and far for being univocal. Hence, in the first part of this lecture we give evidence of the advances brought about by theoretical studies.
In the second part we present an overview on the growing literature concerning the empirical assessment of financial performance of SRI funds and portfolios, shedding light on the performance of SRI funds and portfolios in terms of better or worse returns to investors. By linking empirical evidence to the theoretical framework, we bring out the evolution and complexity of SRI investments. This review confirms a neutral or positive view of SRIs, concluding that implementing ESG actions does no harm to investment returns.

Prof. Luca Spataro

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