| Titre | Effectiveness of not-for-profit labels and commercial ratings in guiding fund flows to sustainable investments | |
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| Auteur | Mathilde Fox, Anh Nguyen, Christel Dumas | |
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Revue | Gestion 2000 |
| Numéro | volume 40, no 3-4, mai-août 2023 | |
| Page | 141-154 | |
| Résumé anglais |
In light of the surge in sustainable funds and growing concerns about greenwashing amidst the criticism of private rating agencies, the use of labels has emerged as a potential solution to enhance market transparency and address agency problems. However, the effectiveness of these labels remains a subject requiring deeper understanding. This study draws on agency theory to analyse whether mutual funds that receive a not-for-profit label experience higher inflow, and how this differs for funds that already have a commercially issued sustainability rating. In a Difference-in-Difference setting, we estimate the effect of the introduction of the Towards Sustainability label on fund flows compared to a control population without the label, constructed with propensity score matching. Both groups comprise 18,585 observations each, representing approximately 400 funds. Our findings reveal that attaining a not-for-profit sustainability label has a positive marginal effect on funds flows, albeit exclusively for funds lacking commercial ratings. These results confirm investor preference for sustainable funds and demonstrate the comparable influence of public labels and private commercial ratings in addressing agency problems by augmenting transparency. Fund managers and financial service providers who give greater importance to labels in the investment decision-making process and fund construction have an opportunity to rebalance the distribution of power in a market dominated by commercial ratings. Source : Éditeur (via Cairn.info) |
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| Article en ligne | https://www.cairn.info/article.php?ID_ARTICLE=G2000_403_0141 (accès réservé) |
