tailieunhanh - The Performance of Socially Responsible Mutual Funds: The Role of Fees and Management Companies ∗

Zheng (1999) further develops the analyses of Gruber (1996), expanding the data set to cover the universe of all equity funds between 1970 and 1993. She finds that funds that enjoy positive net f lows subsequently perform better on a risk-adjusted basis than funds that experience negative net f lows. She also examines whether a trading strategy could be devised based on the predictive ability of net f lows and finds evidence that information on net f lows into smal funds could be used to make risk-adjusted profits | OCQQBri nooono Working Paper 08-34 Business Economic Series 09 June 2008 1 MVERSIDAD CARLOS III DE MADRID working papers --------r Departamento de Economía de la Empresa Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Calle Madrid 126 28903 Getafe Spain Fax 34-91 6249607 The Performance of Socially Responsible Mutual Funds The Role of Fees and Management Companies Javier Gil-Bazo1 Pablo Ruiz-Verdú1 and André A. P. Santos1 Abstract In this paper we shed light on the debate about the financial performance of socially responsible investment SRI mutual funds by separately analyzing the contributions of before-fee performance and fees to SRI funds performance and by investigating the role played by fund management companies in the determination of those variables. We apply the matching estimator methodology to obtain our results and find that in the period 1997-2005 US SRI funds had significantly higher fees and better before- and after-fee performance than conventional funds with similar characteristics. Differences however were driven exclusively by SRI funds run by management companies specialized in socially responsible investment. Key-words Socially responsible investment Mutual fund fees Mutual fund performance Matching estimators. JEL Classification G12 G20 G23 A13. The authors would like to thank Manuel F. Bagués Iraj Fooladi Vasiliki Skintzi and seminar participants at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid the 2008 FMA European Conference and the 2008 EFMA Annual Conference for very helpful comments. The usual disclaimer applies. The financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science SEJ2005-06655 ECON and SEJ2007-67448 and of the BBVA foundation is gratefully acknowledged. Corresponding author Javier Gil-Bazo Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Department of Business Administration. Calle Madrid 126. 28903 - Getafe Madrid - Spain. E-mail j . 1 Department of Business Administration Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Previous research on socially .