Equity Mutual Funds in Healthcare Sector: A Comparison of Performance and Risk Through an Age-Cohort Analysis

Sustainable finance development led to the spread of some specific categories of equity funds based on a social vocation. Particularly, sustainable funds are portfolios of equities and/or bonds for which environmental, social and governance factors have been integrated into the investment process. Today these tools play an important role in the health sector. The aim is to offer an overview of the healthcare equity funds market through a comparison of their performance and risk. The research is developed through the collecting and re-elaborating of a data set of 269 healthcare equity funds all over the world published on Morningstar on November 30th, 2021. The study uses a multi-disciplinary approach, first, by calculation and comparison of performances and volatility measurements, then, by a cohort analysis to put in evidence the value of some parameters of the cohort of funds in the period 1998-2021. Results of the study show that the investors' attention to the healthcare sector has spread, especially in recent years, offering some reflections.