Experienced and Novice Investors: Does Environmental Information Influence Investment Allocation Decisions?

Claus Holm*, Pall Rikhardsson

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of environmental information on investment decisions. The results are based on an experiment in which groups of investors (varied by experience) were asked to make short and long term investment allocation decisions based on financial information and on supplementary environmental information (varied between cases). The results suggest that environmental information disclosure influences investment allocation decisions. The results also suggest that potentially mitigating factors such as the investment horizon and the experience level of investors affect investment allocation decisions, but the predicted main effect of positive environmental information holds across different investment horizons and investor types. Hence, the results are not attributable to interaction effects. Interestingly, compared to other company information, environmental information is not rated as being very important by participating subjects even though the results suggest that it influences investment decisions.
Original languageEnglish
JournalEuropean Accounting Review
Volume17
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)537-557
Number of pages20
ISSN0963-8180
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2008
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Environmental reporting
  • Environmental disclosures
  • Allocation
  • Decision making
  • Investment horizon
  • Investors
  • Experiment

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