Socially Responsible Investments : Are investors paying a price for investing ethically?

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study is to evaluate the difference in performance and management fees between ethical and conventional mutual funds registered in Sweden. Our dataset consists of 49 ethical and 254 conventional funds, estimated on a 10-year period of time between January 2005 to January 2015. Jensen’s alpha is used as a measure for risk-adjusted performance and estimated through CAPM single-index model as well as by Carhart’s four-factor model. By adding back the management fees to the net returns and then estimate Jensen’s alpha by Carhart’s four-factor model once again, evidence of any differences in the impact on return between ethical and conventional funds is found. The results obtained from the study show that there is no difference in neither the risk-adjusted returns nor management fees between ethical and conventional funds. It is concluded that Swedish mutual fund investors are not paying a specific price in terms of reduced returns or higher management fees for putting social and ethical values into their financial investment decision.