The green and Brown performances of mutual fund portfolios

Abstract

The past decade has seen an increasing interest in socially responsible investing (SRI) in the mutual fund industry. Central to this development is whether SRI funds underperform conventional funds. Using a novel approach and a sample of 2,255 mutual funds, we decompose fund portfolios into socially responsible (green) and non-socially responsible (brown) components. We find that, in comparison to the non-socially responsible component, the socially responsible portion exhibits a lower raw return, lower risk-adjusted return (alpha), lower Sharpe ratio, and similar degree of performance reversal. The magnitude of this underperformance is, however, relatively small. The results align with SRI having a limited negative impact on fund performance while potentially offering some diversification benefits.