Thematic funds: cross-country research at a European level

Abstract

The financial crisis brings to light the need to assume an investment philosophy based on greater transparency, integration of extra-financial interests of the investors and better and greater risk management. The Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) allows the integration of the aforementioned concepts and is applicable to any financial product: investment funds, pension plans, venture capital funds and other financial products. This final degree project aims at analyzingthe extent of the SRI implementation in Europe and especially analyzingthe main characteristics of one of the financial products with greater growth in the current financial market: thematic funds in charge of promoting those activities linked to the environmental protection. To do so, a set of financial and extra-financial variables out of a sample of 30 thematic funds of three European countries (the UK, France and Spain) have been analyzed. From the analysis conducted, three different Green investor profiles can be obtained based on thecountry where the funds are commercialized.