“Mutual funds that call themselves socially responsible have had striking growth in assets over the last decade, fueled in part by the perception that they can more than hold their own with the rest of the fund industry. A new study, however, calls that idea into doubt,” writes Mark Hulbert in Sunday’s New York Times.

“Such funds screen potential investments according to many social or ethical criteria. Common screens aim to avoid companies involved in the alcohol, tobacco, gambling or military industries, or companies that pollute the environment or mistreat workers.”

“The new study conflicts with many previous ones, which found that socially responsible funds, on average, outperformed other stock mutual funds in the 1990’s. But many of those studies were conducted before the technology bubble burst in early 2000. The typical socially responsible fund has an outsized allocation to tech stocks, so its strong performance in the 90’s might have reflected no more than that sector’s strength.”

“Unless you believe that technology stocks will always beat the market, you shouldn’t make long-term bets that socially responsible funds will outperform other funds.”

“Many socially responsible funds are partial to the technology sector because tech companies often score well on the funds’ screens. In the five years through May, according to Shannon Zimmerman, fund analyst at Morningstar Inc., the average socially responsible equity fund allocated 23 percent of its portfolio to the tech and telecommunications sectors, versus an average of 14.5 percent for all other equity funds.”

“The heavy allocation to technology may also help to explain the socially responsible stock funds’ recent relative strength. According to Lipper Inc., such funds produced an average gain of 15.5 percent in the second quarter, slightly better than the 15.4 percent total return for the S.& P. 500-stock index.”

“Three researchers at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania have found a way to analyze socially responsible funds that is less influenced by the performance of the tech sector. The study, by Christopher C. Geczy and Robert F. Stambaugh, both finance professors, and David Levin, one of their graduate students, can be found at http://finance.wharton.upenn.edu
/~stambaug/sri.pdf.”

“The researchers analyzed socially responsible funds in light of market factors that historically have been most correlated with fund performance, like the average market capitalization of a fund’s stock holdings or where its stocks fall on the value-growth spectrum. Within the universe of socially responsible funds, they found that there is a smaller range of meaningful choices among these factors. Over time, they say, that reduces returns for investors who build a portfolio of such funds.”

“Because socially responsible funds are more oriented toward growth stocks than value stocks, for example, investors may find that their portfolios will suffer over time. According to separate research by Eugene F. Fama of the University of Chicago and Kenneth R. French of Dartmouth, the average value stock outperformed the average growth stock by 3.5 percentage points a year, annualized, over the last 77 years.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/20/business/yourmoney/20STRA.html