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Ethical Investment (ethical + investment)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	60%

Selected Abstracts

Bringing Ethical Investment to Account

AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 34 2004
Geoff Frost
As the ethical investment industry in Australia matures there is a need for greater scrutiny and understanding of the potential investor's personal beliefs, the investment products on offer and the processes by which the investment universe is determined. The recent introduction of regulation requiring additional information in product disclosure statements is a step in the right direction. However, further disclosure by funds and public exposure is necessary to create a transparent and accountable investment industry. [source]

Ethical investment and the incentives for corporate environmental protection and social responsibility

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2003
Iulie Aslaksen
This paper addresses some interrelated questions regarding ethical investments: does ethical screening provide any incentives for improved social responsibility within firms? Are ethical screened portfolios competitive compared with conventional funds with respect to risk-adjusted return? Does the risk-adjusted return of a screened portfolio depend on the screening strategy applied? Considering ethical screening as a kind of segmentation of the equity market, it is shown that screening might create incentives for changes in firms' behaviour. The strength of this incentive depends on the relative share of screened portfolios, which in turn partially depends on the financial performance of the screened portfolios. While some theoretical arguments suggest that screening imposes a handicap compared with conventional portfolios, the empirical evidence does not suggest that screened portfolios systematically under-perform conventional portfolios. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]

Ethical investment: whose ethics, which investment?

BUSINESS ETHICS: A EUROPEAN REVIEW, Issue 3 2001
Russell Sparkes
Ethical or socially responsible investment (SRI) is one of the most rapidly growing areas of finance. New government regulations mean that all pension funds are obliged to take such considerations into account. However, this phenomenon has received little critical attention from business ethicists, and a clear conceptual framework is lacking. This paper, by a practitioner in the field, attempts to fill this analytical gap. It considers what difference, if any, lies between the terms ,ethical', ,green', or ,socially responsible'. It also tackles the difficult question of how any public form of investment can be called ,ethical' in an overtly pluralistic society. The paper provides an account of the historical development of ethical investment, and traces the evolution of the varying terms used to describe it. This is followed by a conceptual analysis of these terms, and a description of ethical decision-making in this context. The paper ends by considering the role of shareholder action within ethical investment, and assesses the utility of the stakeholder model as a theoretical justification. [source]