To label or not? A choice experiment testing whether labelled green bonds matter to retail investors
Abstract Green bonds are an important sustainable finance tool that can help reorient financial flows and influence public policy in addressing climate action across the global financial markets. However, this market is still in its infancy for the retail investor segment, and it has not been suffic...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer Nature
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-04395-w |
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| author | Vasundhara Saravade Olaf Weber Adam Vitalis |
| author_facet | Vasundhara Saravade Olaf Weber Adam Vitalis |
| author_sort | Vasundhara Saravade |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Green bonds are an important sustainable finance tool that can help reorient financial flows and influence public policy in addressing climate action across the global financial markets. However, this market is still in its infancy for the retail investor segment, and it has not been sufficiently examined from a behavioural policy lens. We fill this research gap by examining whether labelling and environmental benefits framing of a green bond can influence retail investor decision-making. By employing 1105 Amazon Mechanical Turk workers across three choice scenarios, we test whether alignment of pro-environmental personal norms or having specific personal traits can have a mediating effect on their green bond preferences. Using a mix of quantitative analyses, we find that most retail investors are influenced by the presence of a ‘green label effect’. For most retail investors, we find that the presence of a green label matters more than the ‘greenness’ of a green bond or the higher financial return of a non-green bond. However, for a very small sub-set of our sample, the alignment of environmental performance-related framing with their pro-environmental personal norms, enables greater investment into enhanced performance green bonds, even at the cost of losing financial returns. Finally, personal traits like individual risk tolerance (high), or previous investment experience with investment products (bonds, stocks), gender (non-binary individuals) and those having employment experience with financial industry, are more likely to invest in a labelled green bond. Our findings have timely implications for sustainable finance public policy, as it relates to regulating the growth of such products through labelling schemes like green taxonomies as well as addressing greenwashing risks through improved regulatory oversight. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e2e20eca2ab349f29e23cd7f58e85ca2 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2662-9992 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Springer Nature |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-e2e20eca2ab349f29e23cd7f58e85ca22025-01-26T12:20:33ZengSpringer NatureHumanities & Social Sciences Communications2662-99922025-01-0112111610.1057/s41599-025-04395-wTo label or not? A choice experiment testing whether labelled green bonds matter to retail investorsVasundhara Saravade0Olaf Weber1Adam Vitalis2Institute of the Environment & Smart Prosperity Institute, University of OttawaSchulich School of Business, York UniversitySchool of Accounting and Finance, University of WaterlooAbstract Green bonds are an important sustainable finance tool that can help reorient financial flows and influence public policy in addressing climate action across the global financial markets. However, this market is still in its infancy for the retail investor segment, and it has not been sufficiently examined from a behavioural policy lens. We fill this research gap by examining whether labelling and environmental benefits framing of a green bond can influence retail investor decision-making. By employing 1105 Amazon Mechanical Turk workers across three choice scenarios, we test whether alignment of pro-environmental personal norms or having specific personal traits can have a mediating effect on their green bond preferences. Using a mix of quantitative analyses, we find that most retail investors are influenced by the presence of a ‘green label effect’. For most retail investors, we find that the presence of a green label matters more than the ‘greenness’ of a green bond or the higher financial return of a non-green bond. However, for a very small sub-set of our sample, the alignment of environmental performance-related framing with their pro-environmental personal norms, enables greater investment into enhanced performance green bonds, even at the cost of losing financial returns. Finally, personal traits like individual risk tolerance (high), or previous investment experience with investment products (bonds, stocks), gender (non-binary individuals) and those having employment experience with financial industry, are more likely to invest in a labelled green bond. Our findings have timely implications for sustainable finance public policy, as it relates to regulating the growth of such products through labelling schemes like green taxonomies as well as addressing greenwashing risks through improved regulatory oversight.https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-04395-w |
| spellingShingle | Vasundhara Saravade Olaf Weber Adam Vitalis To label or not? A choice experiment testing whether labelled green bonds matter to retail investors Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| title | To label or not? A choice experiment testing whether labelled green bonds matter to retail investors |
| title_full | To label or not? A choice experiment testing whether labelled green bonds matter to retail investors |
| title_fullStr | To label or not? A choice experiment testing whether labelled green bonds matter to retail investors |
| title_full_unstemmed | To label or not? A choice experiment testing whether labelled green bonds matter to retail investors |
| title_short | To label or not? A choice experiment testing whether labelled green bonds matter to retail investors |
| title_sort | to label or not a choice experiment testing whether labelled green bonds matter to retail investors |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-04395-w |
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