We investigate the occurrence of greenwashing in the US mutual fund industry. Using panel regression methods, we test whether there exist differences in the portfolio investment behaviors of active equity funds that are self-declared to be driven by ESG motives when compared to all other funds. In particular, we focus on two aspects of funds’ portfolio allocation decisions, i.e., the actual implied average ESG ratings of the stocks a mutual fund invests in and the portfolio share invested in sin stocks. We do not find strong evidence that ESG and non-ESG funds make identical investment choices and hence reject the hypothesis of wiespread greenwashing. ESG funds, on average, invest more in companies with higher ESG ratings and avoid sin stocks more than non-ESG funds. Nonetheless, we obtain evidence that some degree of greenwashing may still be occurring. However, over time, the differences between ESG and non-ESG funds in these behaviors seem have declined, suggesting a potential reduction in greenwashing practices.

中文翻译：

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美国主动型共同基金兑现其 ESG 承诺吗？来自投资组合的证据

我们调查了美国共同基金行业洗绿的情况。使用面板回归方法，我们测试了自我宣称受 ESG 动机驱动的主动股票基金的投资行为与所有其他基金相比是否存在差异。我们特别关注基金投资组合配置决策的两个方面，即共同基金投资的股票的实际隐含平均ESG评级和投资于罪恶股票的投资组合份额。我们没有找到强有力的证据表明 ESG 和非 ESG 基金做出相同的投资选择，因此拒绝了“wiespread greenwashing”的假设。平均而言，ESG 基金比非 ESG 基金更多地投资于 ESG 评级较高的公司，并更多地避免罪恶股票。尽管如此，我们获得的证据表明，某种程度的“漂绿”行为可能仍在发生。然而，随着时间的推移，ESG 和非 ESG 基金在这些行为上的差异似乎已经缩小，这表明洗绿行为可能会减少。