Determinants of Portfolio ESG Performance: An Attribution Framework
By James J. Li We develop a parsimonious attribution framework for evaluating the ESG performance of a portfolio. Our attribution model decomposes portfolio ESG performance into three principal components: a value effect, a weighting effect, and an interaction effect. We illustrate our approach using the equity portfolios of U.S. public pension funds over time. We find that U.S. public pensions’ positive ESG performance over the past decade is mainly due to their underlying holdings boosting their ESG scores over this...