Socially Responsible Investment Funds

A new development in the financial community during the last decade is the rise of sustainable and socially responsible investment funds. In particular, the global financial crisis of 2008 has directed attention towards ethically oriented financial instruments based on social investment and environmental benefits that may provide crisis prevention. The spread of financial instruments with sustainable and socially responsible implications is a phenomenon which has started to assume a greater relevance. Certain investors show a strong interest in financial instruments that allow them to pursue not only economic returns but also to achieve social responsibility. This chapter aims to discuss sustainable and socially responsible investment funds and to offer an analysis of these trends in Western European markets.