Evaluación de la inversión colectivaanálisis comparativo de los fondos sociales frente a los fondos convencionales en Europa

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of a sample of European equity funds and to examine whether there is any relationship between, on one hand, the investment in socially responsible firms (social factor of the investment), the type of investment policy (negative and positive screening), and the quality of information used by fund managers in their investment decisions and, on the other, the financial performance of funds. Two kinds of analysis are proposed to compare the results: one classical commonly used in empirical research into the subject based on the bivariate testing of difference in means (Mann-Whitney test), and another, more innovative approach, based on the multivariate technique of structural equation models (SEM). The main conclusion of this study is that the application of social criteria in investment decisions carries a cost to the investor in terms of lower return.