Antisocially Conscious Sectors

Abstract

Measuring the collective performance of socially conscious mutual funds has so far presented a challenge because of diverse screening criteria. Because an investor is concerned about not supporting a company that sells tobacco does not imply the same investor feels as strongly about animal rights or child labor or gambling or alcohol. A systematic approach to measuring the results of socially responsible mutual funds directly investigates the performance of the companies or sectors that are screened out of the funds. The tobacco, alcohol, and gambling sectors outperformed the S&P 500 over 11 years, with lower coefficients of variation than the benchmark.