Pandemic Uncertainty and Socially Responsible Investments

Wenzhong Zhu; Jiajia Yang; Han Lv; Meier Zhuang

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.661482

Pandemic Uncertainty and Socially Responsible Investments

Front Public Health. 2021 Mar 12:9:661482. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.661482. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Wenzhong Zhu¹, Jiajia Yang², Han Lv¹, Meier Zhuang¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Business, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China.
² Department of Public Policy, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of pandemic uncertainty on socially responsible investments. We use the overall corporate sustainability performance index in the Global-100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World dataset to measure socially responsible investments. The global pandemic uncertainty is also measured by the World Pandemic Uncertainty Index. We focus on the panel dataset from 2012 to 2020, and the results show that the World Pandemic Uncertainty Index is positively related to socially responsible investments. The main findings remain significant when we utilize various panel estimation techniques.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; COVID-19 uncertainty; pandemics uncertainty; panel data estimators; socially responsible investments.

MeSH terms

COVID-19 / economics*
Humans
Investments / economics*
Investments / statistics & numerical data*
Models, Economic*
Pandemics / statistics & numerical data*
SARS-CoV-2
Social Responsibility*
Uncertainty*