Socially Responsible Mutual Funds and Their Performance Characteristics

Socially responsible or ethical investing has been developed dramatically since last three decades. Socially responsible or ethical investing can be defined as a set of approaches which include social or ethical goals or constraints as well as more conventional financial criteria in decisions over whether to acquire, hold or dispose of a particular investment. Socially responsible investing is the reflection of ethical values in financial markets. Socially responsible investing is a new topic in Turkey and it is an important one on which is needed to be put emphasis. This paper reviews concepts of socially responsible investing and socially responsible mutual fund which is mostly applied special approach of socially responsible investing. Furthermore, the performance of socially mutual funds compared to other mutual funds which are constituted based on conventional financial criteria is examined in this paper. In addition, the application of socially responsible mutual funds in Turkey is examined. We conclude with some suggestions about how to improve the applications of socially responsible investing in Turkey.