ESG Favoritism in Mutual Fund Families
1 : Vienna University of Economics and Business
2 : Vienna Graduate School of Business
3 : New York University - Leonard N. Stern School of Business
4 : New York University [Shanghai]
We investigate whether mutual fund families favor their ESG funds at the expense of their non-ESG siblings. We find that the net-of-style return spread of ESG compared to non-ESG funds within the fund family is significantly greater than the gap with non-ESG matches outside the family. The difference is around 2% per year, indicating sizable cross-fund subsidization that is mainly used to avoid underperformance of ESG funds. We link these differences to various fund and family characteristics and relate the observed effects to measures of environmental awareness and fund flows. Additionally, we investigate potential mechanisms of ESG favoritism.