Socially responsible investors with poor selection skills face financial losses
Investors in socially responsible mutual funds in the US tend to put more money into funds that have performed well in the past. This trend is stronger for smaller, non-institutional funds with lower minimum investments. However, this positive relationship between fund flows and performance does not seem to be due to investors' selection skills. Religious fund investors show the worst selection skills, while environmental fund investors have the strongest positive relationship between flows and performance. In other markets, there is generally no clear link between fund flows and performance.