The Effect of Socially Responsible Investing on Portfolio Performance

More and more investors apply socially responsible screens when building their stock portfolios. This raises the question whether these investors can increase their performance by incorporating such screens into their investment process. To answer this question we implement a simple trading strategy based on socially responsible ratings from the KLD Research & Analytics: Buy stocks with high socially responsible ratings and sell stocks with low socially responsible ratings. We find that this strategy leads to high abnormal returns of up to 8.7% per year. The maximum abnormal returns are reached when investors employ the best‐in‐class screening approach, use a combination of several socially responsible screens at the same time, and restrict themselves to stocks with extreme socially responsible ratings. The abnormal returns remain significant even after taking into account reasonable transaction costs.     

令人瞠目的不同世界:西欧与中国近代早期的国家与经济

本文强调,西方崛起或工业化并非斯密所描述的自由市场竞争的结果,而是国家意志、海外贸易和奉行了军事财政体制造成的.与此相应的是,中国在近代以降并未象英国、欧美那样走上强国的工业化之路,也并非缺乏斯密所说的那种市场经济体制.事实上,出现在一系列历史著述上的核心观点,即"富国之所以富有是因为拥有市场的自由,穷国之所以贫弱,是因为拥有官僚的专制"并没有真实地解释中、西方在历史演化轨迹中所出现的"大分岔".谓予不信,基于英国或其他发达的工业国早期历史上的军国主义的财政策略和中国清代以降所采取的悲天悯人的家长式的农业制度的对比研究将提供详尽答案与深刻启示.     

Social influence effects and managerial compensation evidence from Germany

I extend existing theories of social influence effects on executive compensation while at the same time showing the context dependence of these effects. Using original data on German firms and a longitudinal design, results of this study suggest that the operating of social influence mechanisms depends on demographic and social similarity between CEOs and board chairs. The findings reconcile previous mixed findings on the role of CEO human capital factors such as education and tenure and furthermore show that board vigilance is conditional on board compensation and the presence of major shareholders with an incentive to monitor board behavior. Finally, the study contributes to compensation and corporate governance research by providing evidence on how social influence effects operate outside the United States. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Community‐based finance systems and their potential for urban self‐help in a new South Africa

Agents dealing with the improvement of the living conditions of the poor often face difficulties owing to a lack of finance. A possible solution is the use and creation of community‐based finance systems for residential improvement, taking into account that additional finance can be mobilised among the target group. For the creation of such schemes, one can learn much from the organisation, operation and maintenance of financial self‐help groups such as stokvels in the informal sector. In discussing and analysing this information, lessons are drawn and policy options developed. It is of great importance that blueprints should be avoided. Consequently, alternative policy options for guided self‐help are explored.     

Spectator communities and entrepreneurial districts

Attempts are made to structure the principles of the new volatile economy. Industrial districts in Italy and the Japanese model are seen as restricting cases, and Denmark’s open economy and SMEs are discussed. Spectator communities are offered as an analytical tool to understand why entrepreneurial activity is so unevenly distributed even in a small institutionally coherent society such as the Danish. Spectator communities may also be an object for political regulation to improve entrepreneurial activity in deindustrializing regions.     

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