Conclusion, Criticism and Outlook

Abstract

Our research study has provided substantiated arguments and empirical evidence that SRIs are suitable for the strategic asset management of German Pension Insurance Funds. SRI assets fit into the prevailing regulatory framework in Germany and also obtain superior performance results than conventional investments portfolios do. An important contribution in this context has been the development of SRI screening methods for fixed-income securities and their inclusion in an empirical analysis, given their overall relevance in the average portfolio allocation. SRI structured portfolios not only yield better average portfolio results than the respective Standard Portfolio, but achieve also superior downside risk measures. Our research results support hereby similar outcomes of recent research studies that compared the performance of conventional assets to SRI-screened investment strategies.