Measurement of U.S. Equity Mutual Funds’ Environmental Responsibility Attractiveness for an Individual Investor

Abstract

Socially responsible mutual funds, also known as socially responsible invested funds, are one of the main instruments of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI). The term “fund” is used to refer to a ready-made financial product where investor’s money is pooled into a portfolio and a fund/in- vestment manager decides which shares to buy. Therefore, this financial product is attractive for passive investors without a high degree of financial knowledge. Nevertheless, investment tools aimed at assisting the investors in their selection of socially responsible companies which serve best their social and environmental values are rather scare and this lack of tools assisting investors in SRI is even more important when we refer to socially responsible mutual funds. The aim of this paper is to assist individual passive investors in their investment decisions providing them with a ranking of mutual funds adjusted to their social, environmental and ethical particular preferences. The proposed approach is illustrated with a real US equity mutual funds’ ranking example.