Beyond preferences: Beliefs in sustainable investing

Luz, Valentin; Schauer, Victor and Viehweger, Martin (2024): Beyond preferences: Beliefs in sustainable investing. In: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Vol. 220: pp. 584-607

Abstract

We investigate the effect of investors' pro-sustainable beliefs – the beliefs about other investors' pro-sustainable preferences – on sustainable investing. Using an incentive-compatible coordination game that incorporates important aspects of a stock market, we elicit investors' pro-sustainable beliefs. We find that, first, investors with pro-sustainable beliefs invest in sustainable assets, even when controlling for investors' pro-sustainable preferences. Second, investors with pro-sustainable preferences invest more in assets with positive sustainability performance than in assets with negative sustainability performance, a result we do not obtain for investors with pro-sustainable beliefs. This finding underscores the complementary relation and importance of pro-sustainable preferences and beliefs for sustainable investing.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Munich School of Management > Institute for Finance and Banking; Munich School of Management > Institute for Accounting and Control
• Subjects: 300 Social sciences > 330 Economics
• ISSN: 01672681
• Language: English