Organised by: Universität Kassel, Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre
Abstract
We present an experimental study of investors' willingness-to-pay for sociallyresponsible assets. We design an initial public offering experiment in which variousassets may be issued with a constant financial risk and return profile but withdifferent intensity and timing of social responsibility: the expected social benefitof assets may be high or low, and the social benefit may occur when the financialpayoff is good or bad. The social benefit is represented in the experiment by adonation to a charity that is realized only if the asset is issued. We find thatindividuals attribute a positive value to social responsibility at an increasing rate,and that assets generating an extra-financial benefit when financial performance isbad suffer from a price discount. We offer implications for the design of corporatesocial responsibility policies, for asset pricing of responsible assets and for the designof responsible investment funds.