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Cited by 144Sustainable Finance and Green BondsCorporate Social Responsibility ReportingFinancial Markets and Investment Strategies

Does responsible investing pay during economic downturns: Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic

Open access
Omura, Akihiro, Roca, Eduardo, Nakai, Miwa·2021·Finance Research Letters
DOI 10.1016/j.frl.2020.101914PMC PMC9760375
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Abstract

We investigate the performance of SRI/ESG investments against conventional investments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although previous studies have examined the performance of SRI during financial crises, little is known about their performance during the COVID-19 crisis. Applying asset-pricing models, we analyze returns, abnormal returns, and the Sharpe ratio of the ESG ETFs in the US and the MSCI SRI indices for the world, the US, Japan, and Europe before and during the pandemic period vis-à-vis conventional investments. Our results confirm the greater outperformance of SRI indices during the pandemic. These findings have academic and practical implications.

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Crossref · 10.1016/j.frl.2020.101914

Cites

48 of 48 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • The performance results appear limited to active sustainable funds, not passive sustainable funds.

    “These results are noteworthy because they seem limited to only active sustainable funds.”

    From Sustainable mutual fund performance and flow in the recent years through the COVID-19 pandemic (2022) · cites this paper as Omura, Roca, and Nakai (2021)

    The Empirical results section reports superior performance for MSCI SRI indices, while the ESG ETFs failed to outperform their benchmarks. The paper does not identify active sustainable funds as the sole source of its positive results; its positive findings concern indices, not active funds. No page number is available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.85)

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  • Other papers find that sustainable ETFs and index funds do not perform well during the early part of the pandemic.

    “Other papers find that sustainable ETFs and index funds do not perform well during the early part of the pandemic (Omura et al., 2021 and Pavlova & de Boyrie, 2022).”

    From Sustainable mutual fund performance and flow in the recent years through the COVID-19 pandemic (2022) · cites this paper as Omura et al., 2021

    The Introduction and Conclusion report that ESG ETFs did not outperform their benchmarks during the pandemic, supporting the ETF portion of the claim. But the same passages say SRI indices outperformed conventional indices during that period; the paper does not find poor performance for both categories. (LLM, conf=0.90)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Omura et al. (2021) find no superior performance of sustainable exchange-traded funds compared to benchmark indices.

    “Omura, Roca, and Nakai (2021) don't find any superior performance of sustainable exchange-traded funds (ETF) compared to the benchmark indices.”

    From Sustainable mutual fund performance and flow in the recent years through the COVID-19 pandemic (2022) · cites this paper as Omura, Roca, and Nakai (2021)

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Cites

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1 of the 49 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Global Sustainable Investment Alliance, 2013. 2012 global sustainable investment review. Available online: http://gsiareview2012.gsi-alliance.org/pubData/source/Global%20Sustainable%20Investement%20Alliance.pdf.

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Authors
Omura, A., Roca, E., & Nakai, M.
Affiliations
  • Griffith University (AU)
  • Fukui Prefectural University (JP)
Corresponding author
Omura, Akihiro
ORCID
Venue
Finance Research Letters
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2021-10
Volume
42
Pages
101914
ISSN
1544-6123 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.frl.2020.101914
PMC
PMC9760375
OpenAlex
W3113640123
Cited by
142
References
49
Citations by year
2026: 13 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 35 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 1
FWCI
16.90
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Finance research letters (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • Griffith Research Online (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
Griffith University
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Finance › Sustainable Finance and Green Bonds
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Finance › Financial Markets and Investment Strategies
Keywords
socially responsible investment, ESG investing, COVID-19 pandemic, economic downturn, abnormal returns, Sharpe ratio, asset pricing, financial crisis

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