Impact investment funds and the equity market: correlation, performance, risk and diversification effects – A global overview

dc.contributor.authorPane, Lucky
dc.contributor.supervisorMalikane, Christopher
dc.date.accessioned2024-10-02T07:57:08Z
dc.date.available2024-10-02T07:57:08Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.descriptionA research report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Finance and Investments to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021
dc.description.abstractThe aim of this paper is threefold. (1) To examine the financial performance of impact investment funds relative to the MSCI World Equity Index as well as traditional asset classes in major developed and emerging economies. (2) To assess the correlation between impact funds and traditional asset classes to see if there are diversification benefits. And finally, to examine the portfolio effects of including impact investment funds in a portfolio with traditional asset classes using mean variance optimization (MVO), capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and Black Litterman (BL) model. The study found that impact investment funds in both developed and emerging market economies deliver financial returns in line with and above the equity market. Broadly there was a negative or low correlation between impact investment funds and conventional asset classes (equities, bonds and cash). This bodes well for portfolio diversification. On comparing the performance of portfolios that include impact investments to portfolios that consist only of traditional asset classes, we found that for several countries in our sample, impact investments improved overall portfolio performance and risk. This was observed using various of performance measures: exported portfolio returns, standard deviation, Sharpe ratio, portfolio beta, Treynor ratio and Jensen Alpha ratio. Based on these findings, this study advocates for fund managers to allocate more capital towards impact investments as this is likely to boost their overall returns
dc.description.submitterMM2024
dc.facultyFaculty of Commerce, Law and Management
dc.identifier.citationPane, Lucky. (2021). Impact investment funds and the equity market: correlation, performance, risk and diversification effects – A global overview [Master’s dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WireDSpace. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/41252
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/41252
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherUniversity of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
dc.rights© 2021 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
dc.rights.holderUniversity of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
dc.schoolWITS Business School
dc.subjectImpact investment
dc.subjectDiversification effects
dc.subjectMSCI World Equity Index
dc.subjectMean variance optimization (MVO)
dc.subjectUCTD
dc.subject.otherSDG-8: Decent work and economic growth
dc.titleImpact investment funds and the equity market: correlation, performance, risk and diversification effects – A global overview
dc.typeDissertation
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