PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Guido Giese
AU  - Linda-Eling Lee
AU  - Dimitris Melas
AU  - Zoltán Nagy
AU  - Laura Nishikawa
TI  - Performance and Risk Analysis of Index-Based ESG Portfolios
AID  - 10.3905/jii.2019.9.4.046
DP  - 2019 Mar 31
TA  - The Journal of Index Investing
PG  - 46--57
VI  - 9
IP  - 4
4099  - https://pm-research.com/content/9/4/46.short
4100  - https://pm-research.com/content/9/4/46.full
AB  - There has been a wide range of research in academia and the asset management industry about the financial benefits of ESG investing. However, the question of how to achieve consistency when integrating ESG has not obtained the same level of attention. As a result, ESG integration currently is often applied inconsistently and incompletely across asset owners’ portfolios. The authors of this article focus on how asset owners can implement ESG integration through index-based allocations to portfolios that seek to replicate ESG indexes. Index-based approaches offer consistency, transparency, and replicability and are generally cost-effective. Over a seven-year study period, global and regional versions of the MSCI ESG Leaders Indexes (as proxies for regional allocations) resulted in significant variations in their respective ESG profiles and performance, but in all instances, there was a clear reduction in all key risk measures.TOPICS: ESG investing, performance measurement, exchange-traded funds and applications, risk management