Socially Responsible Investment
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Review of socially responsible investment (SRI) (completed) - Julie Salaber This project provides an extensive analysis and literature review about SRI around the world. It first introduces the different definitions of SRI and the difficulty to measure this type of investment on an international scale. The work also traces the history of SRI with a particular emphasize on the role of religion in the early and late development of SRI. Secondly, this project analyses (based on academic literature) the role and motivation of the different bodies in the area: fund managers, socially responsible investors, governments, unions... The third part reviews the academic literature (both theoretical and empirical) on the performance of SR funds and companies. SR funds tend to perform as well as conventional funds, but there exist significant differences across countries. The last part of the project puts into perspective the opposite of SRI, "vice investing". There is little evidence about the performance of "sin stocks" to date, and this evidence shows that vice investing outperforms traditional investing. Salaber, J. 2010 Ethique et Toc: Promesses et Performances de l’Investissement Socialement Responsable, Editions Universitaires Européennes. |