CentER

CentER is a world-class research institute that draws on the academic expertise of some of the most outstanding minds in the field of economics and business.

Center

Chendi Zhang

Date of Ph.D. defense:8 November 2006
Title of thesis:Ethics, Investments and Investor Behavior
ISBN:90 5668 179 6
Promotor:Prof.dr. L. Renneboog
Copromotor:Dr. J. ter Horst

Abstract:
The dissertation studies ethical investments and investor behavior. Over the past decade, ethical investments, often also called socially responsible investments (SRI), have experienced an explosive growth around the world. Particular to ethical funds is that both financial goals and ethical/social objectives are pursued. Chapter 2 gives an extensive review of the literature on SRI. Chapter 3 studies the money-flows into and out of ethical funds around the world. Chapter 4 examines the risk-return characteristics of ethical funds around the world. The second part of the dissertation studies the impact of information on investor behavior. In particular, Chapter 5 investigates the impact of information salience on investors' reactions to news by studying soccer clubs listed on the London Stock Exchange. Chapter 6 is an experimental study which disentangles the effect of information feedback from the effect of investment flexibility on the risk-taking behavior of a myopically loss averse investor.

Full text