A Morality Tale of ESG: Assessing Socially Responsible Investing

Abstract

A review of academic literature suggests a lack of consensus on positive and negative abnormal returns associated with socially responsible investing/environmental, social, and governance (SRI/ESG) factors. This article examines the benefit of incorporating ESG factors during a more recent period to acknowledge the ongoing investment trend toward ESG. The authors find that the top-quintile (most compliant) stocks ranked by ESG score underperform the out-sample research universe. They present evidence that indicates incorporating ESG into a robust quantitative investment process can mitigate the adverse effect, however, thus providing investors with a portfolio that outperforms a benchmark while allowing investors to embrace ESG.