Socially Responsible Fixed-Income Funds

This study measures the performance of socially responsible bond and balanced funds in the U.S. relative to matched samples of conventional funds, over the period 1987-2003. Using multi-index performance evaluation models, we show that the average SRI bond fund performed similar to conventional funds, while the average SRI balanced fund outperformed its conventional peers by more than 1.3% per year. The expenses charged by SRI funds, match those charged by conventional funds and, evidently, do not cause SRI funds to underperform.