Betting Against ESG: Evidence from Institutional Short Position Disclosures
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School of Business |
Bachelor's thesis
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Date
2022
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Mcode
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Rahoitus
Language
en
Pages
24 + 15
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Abstract
Using novel data of daily disclosures in Europe from 2012 to 2022, I identify significant short positions of individual institutions and examine whether investors take into consideration environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance in making trading decisions. Institutional investors as a group exhibit a positive association between ESG scores and short selling, suggesting that short sellers tend to target high-ESG firms. However, there is significant variation in ESG preferences across investors. Exploiting information on the identity of the short sellers, I discover that especially non-climate conscious investors and pure-play hedge funds short firms with strong ESG credentials. I also find evidence that climate initiative involvement reduces trading against green stocks among financial conglomerate and bank-affiliated hedge funds and other institutional investors.Description
Thesis advisor
Joenväärä, JuhaKeywords
ESG, short selling, institutional investors, hedge funds, PRI, CDP, CA100+