Sustainable financial literacy and preferences for sustainable investments among young adults

Abstract

We use a choice experiment on equity fund investments to estimate the preferences of young adults for sustainable investments relative to conventional investment funds. Our results suggest that the traditional trade-off between investment fund risk and return is still valid in the selection of sustainable investment funds. The environment focus is more important for the choice of sustainable investment then social or governance aspects. Latent behavioural characteristics (conscientiousness, importance of the impact of direct investments on sustainability, risk aversion, financial literacy) are also important to explain the choice for sustainable funds.