Papers by Carmen-Pilar Martí-Ballester
This study examines the relationship between gender equality scores for leadership and workforce ... more This study examines the relationship between gender equality scores for leadership and workforce dimension and financial performance of 554 US thematic mutual funds and 2,140 US conventional mutual funds investing globally or in the United States stock markets from January 2015 to May 2021. To this end, we implement the new Fama and French six-factor model and the Student's t-parametric tests for the independent samples. Our results indicate that, in general, gender equality for leadership and workforce does not affect the financial performance of mutual funds focused on one sector related to sustainable development goals that invest in the United States market. However, we find that infrastructure mutual funds with higher levels of gender leadership and workforce equality that invest in the global market perform better than their counterparts with lower levels of gender equality. On the contrary, healthcare, water, information technology and gold and precious metals mutual funds with higher levels of gender equality for leadership and workforce dimension that invest in the global market underperform their counterparts with lower levels of gender leadership and workforce equality. Similarly, we find a negative relationship between gender equality level for leadership and workforce dimension and the financial performance of mutual funds diversified across sectors such as conventional and ethical mutual funds investing globally or in the United States market.
Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, Jan 19, 2020
This study assessed how students' perceptions of online quizzes and the use of three electronic d... more This study assessed how students' perceptions of online quizzes and the use of three electronic devices to solve them affected their performance. A sample of 208 students enrolled in an introductory accounting course at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona completed online quizzes as part of their evaluation and filled in a questionnaire on their perceptions of such quizzes and the electronic devices they used to do them on. Their scores were collected both for the online quizzes and their examinations, and the data were then analysed using a partial least square structural equation model. Findings suggest that a positive perception of online quizzes positively affected students' examination scores, but not their scores for the online quizzes. The findings also indicate that, while positive perceptions of computers and tablet PCs for doing online quizzes did not affect students' examination scores, those who reported positive perceptions of the use of mobile phones for online quizzes obtained significantly lower examination scores than their peers. Finally, perception of the use of any electronic device did not affect students' scores for online quizzes. Implications for instructors, faculty administrators, and students are provided based on the results. Implications for practice or policy: • Students should be aware of the benefits of using online quizzes to test their knowledge, rather than to learn course content. • Instructors should clearly explain the purpose of self-assessment to students. • Instructors should integrate learning activities with complementary learning resources for mobile phones.
Socially Responsible Investment: The Financial Performance of Spanish Equity Pension Plans
Advances in sustainability and environmental justice, Jan 28, 2015
Abstract Purpose Pension funds are demanding increasingly more information about the levels of co... more Abstract Purpose Pension funds are demanding increasingly more information about the levels of corporate social responsibility achieved by companies through the use of corporate social responsibility reports to select which firms’ stocks to invest in. This could improve or reduce the financial performance achieved by pension plans. Therefore, this chapter examines the financial performance obtained by equity pension plans, distinguishing between solidarity pension plans, ethical pension plans and conventional pension plans. Design/methodology/approach We use a sample of 153 individual system pension plans (129 conventional pension plans, 6 solidarity pension plans and 18 ethical pension plans). Using these sample data, we implement the robust random effects panel data methodology. Findings The results show that ethical pension plans perform similarly to traditional pension plans, while solidarity pension plans significantly outperform conventional pension plans. Research limitations/implications We do not know what weights managers give to environmental, social and corporate governance criteria, which may influence the financial performance of pension plans. Practical implications The results of this study could be relevant for pension plan managers that may be considering the integration of ethical screening in their management strategies in order to offer differentiated products and for investors who would like to invest in ethical pension plans without compromising their financial performance. Originality/value of the chapter Previous studies have analysed the financial performance obtained by traditional and ethical funds, but in this chapter we compare the financial performance of traditional, solidarity and ethical pension plans.
Journal of Cleaner Production, Sep 1, 2017
Theme 5: Sustainable energy innovations, green products and services Sustainable energy systems a... more Theme 5: Sustainable energy innovations, green products and services Sustainable energy systems and company performance: Does the implementation of sustainable energy systems improve companies' financial performance? *
Journal of Cleaner Production, Nov 1, 2015
Assets under management involved in socially responsible investing almost trebled from 2007 to 20... more Assets under management involved in socially responsible investing almost trebled from 2007 to 2011 in Europe, led by pension funds. Such growth has encouraged the implementation of socially responsible activities by companies, which have improved their cleaner production methods in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, total water used, energy consumption and waste generated, among others. Integrating environmental, social and governance policies for cleaner production into the investment strategy of pension plans could increase their cost deriving from the screening process and/or increase the benefits, because socially responsible companies in which pension funds invest might achieve a better financial performance than traditional companies, which could in turn affect pension plans' financial performance. For this reason, the aim of this paper is twofold: firstly, to examine the financial performance of Spanish pension plans compared to market benchmarks taking into account the category to which they belong, and the socially responsible business strategy implemented by the manager; and secondly, to analyze whether differences in financial performance exist between solidarity pension plans, ethical pension plans and traditional pension plans. To do this, we have a sample of 651 individual system pension plans. Using these sample data, we implement the robust random effects panel data methodology. The results show that ethical pension plans, which invest in companies that improve their cleaner production methods, achieve a similar financial performance to conventional pension plans, while solidarity pension plans significantly outperform conventional pension plans.
Examining the behavior of renewable‐energy fund investors
Business Strategy and The Environment, Jun 4, 2020
Mutual fund investors could contribute to sustainable development by encouraging fund managers to... more Mutual fund investors could contribute to sustainable development by encouraging fund managers to channel their savings into the funding of sustainable energy projects adopted by firms. This study examines whether renewable‐energy investors take into account financial and/or nonfinancial factors when making the decision to invest in a specific fund, comparing their investment behavior with that of black‐energy and conventional investors. To this end, we have gathered information about 4,368 mutual funds (76 renewable‐energy funds, 109 black‐energy funds, and 4,183 conventional mutual funds) from January 2007 to December 2017. For this sample, we adopt a panel‐data approach with Petersen's standard errors clustered by fund and year. Our results indicate that renewable‐energy fund investors are less sensitive to past financial performance than are black‐energy and conventional fund investors, indicating that the former derive their utility from nonfinancial attributes whereas black‐energy investors derive their utility from a conditional multiattribute and conventional fund investors derive their utility from financial attributes.
Analyzing Alternative Energy Mutual Fund Performance in the Spanish Market
Energy, Environment, and Sustainability, Nov 10, 2018
Investors are becoming aware of the important role of renewable energy sources for mitigating glo... more Investors are becoming aware of the important role of renewable energy sources for mitigating global warming, which has encouraged them to invest in alternative energy mutual funds. However, the effectiveness of such financial instruments to mobilize private investments depends on the ability of managers to increase the investors’ wealth. For this reason, this paper examines the financial performance of alternative energy mutual funds compared to conventional and thematic market benchmarks in the Spanish market. To do so, we use a sample of 42 alternative energy mutual funds. Using these sample data, we implement a Carhart (1997) four-factor model. The results show that the use of a renewable energy index or conventional indexes affects fund performance. 19.05% of alternative energy mutual funds significantly exceed the renewable energy index, while 80.95% of alternative energy funds perform similarly to the market. There is no evidence of any effect of size or operating costs on the financial performance of funds.
Sustainability, Mar 6, 2020
Measures favoring healthy lives among populations around the world are essential to reduce social... more Measures favoring healthy lives among populations around the world are essential to reduce social inequalities. Mutual funds could play an important role funding these measures if they are able to attract socially concerned investors by improving their wealth. This study analyzes the financial performance of mutual funds focused on the biotechnology and healthcare sectors related to UN sustainable development goal 3 (SDG 3), comparing their risk-adjusted return with that achieved by conventional mutual funds. This study implements Carhart's multifactor model and Bollen and Busse's timing multifactor model on a sample of 34 biotechnology and 178 healthcare mutual funds and 4352 conventional mutual funds. The results show that biotechnology and healthcare mutual funds perform similarly, while both of them outperform conventional mutual funds. This outperformance of biotechnology and healthcare funds is driven by the superior stock-picking skills of their managers with regards to those of conventional fund managers, while managers of biotechnology, healthcare, and conventional mutual funds present similar poor market timing ability. Mutual funds specialized in biotechnology and healthcare sectors related to sustainable development goal 3 (SDG 3) outperform conventional mutual funds.
Renewable Energy, Dec 1, 2019
Economic growth and development around the world are leading to increasing worldwide demand for e... more Economic growth and development around the world are leading to increasing worldwide demand for energy, whose production still mainly comes from fossil fuels generating large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to global warming and climate change. To mitigate climate change, the European Union implemented an energy policy strategy that encourages firms to implement sustainable energy systems. This could generate investment opportunities in energy efficiency and renewable energy projects around the world for European mutual funds. Therefore, the main aim of this paper is to analyze the financial performance of energy and renewable energy mutual funds using conditional and unconditional models. To this end, we have a sample of 4496 mutual funds commercialized in Europe in the period 2007e2018. Our results indicate that renewable energy mutual funds perform similarly to the market using conditional models. However, they underperform their conventional peers using a specialized market benchmark, reaching similar performance to black energy funds. While the total expense ratio negatively affects renewable energy financial performance, other fund characteristics, such as size or Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) certification, do not affect it.
Analysing the financial performance of sustainable development goals-themed mutual funds in China
Sustainable Production and Consumption, Jul 1, 2021
Abstract More and more Chinese investors are investing in mutual funds linked to a specific Unite... more Abstract More and more Chinese investors are investing in mutual funds linked to a specific United Nations sustainable development goal (UN-SDG) supporting themes such as good health and wellbeing (healthcare mutual funds), affordable and clean energy (renewable energy mutual funds), innovation (technology mutual funds), responsible consumption and production (ethical mutual funds), or life on land (natural resources mutual funds) with the aim to increase their wealth. Therefore, it is important to analyse the financial performance of SDG-themed mutual funds in China. This study is the first in examining whether Chinese mutual funds investing in a specific sector related to the UN-SDGs can beat the domestic-market index diversified across industries. High financial performance would attract more investors and allow firms to capture private financial resources to develop innovative projects that contribute to achieving the SDGs. To this end, this study analyses a sample of 111 Chinese SDG-themed equity mutual funds over the 2009-2019 period, applying several financial performance measures from Jensen's model, Fama and French's model, and Carhart's model. Furthermore, it compares the financial performance of different categories by implementing Student's t-parametric tests for the independent samples and the Mann-Whitney U non-parametric tests for the independent samples. The results indicate that the Carhart's model is superior in explaining mutual fund financial performance than the other two models. In general, SDG-themed mutual funds achieve a similar financial performance to that of the market benchmarks; and these results are robust to several asset pricing models. The results also show that the energy mutual funds significantly underperform the biotechnology, healthcare, agribusiness, technology, and ethical mutual funds in China. Contrastingly, the healthcare mutual funds are shown to outperform the energy, technology, and ethical mutual funds, while other categories exhibit similar financial performances. Furthermore, we find that SDG-themed mutual funds investing in the China geographical market perform like those investing in the global and the United States geographical markets. In conclusion, most SDG-themed mutual funds achieve risk-adjusted returns that are not significantly different from the market benchmarks. Therefore, those who invest in SDG-themed mutual funds could achieve good long-term financial performance while satisfying their non-financial preferences.
European Healthcare and Biotechnology-Related Mutual Funds and Sustainable Development During COVID-19
Springer eBooks, 2023
Journal of Cleaner Production, May 1, 2014
Mutual funds and gender equality in portfolio firms: Toward the sustainable development goals
Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, Oct 12, 2022
UAB Research Seminar: Can Investment in Cleaner Production Improve the Financial Performance of Spanish Pension Plans?
Business Strategy and the Environment, 2019
The integration of renewable energy criteria in mutual fund investment decisions could channel pr... more The integration of renewable energy criteria in mutual fund investment decisions could channel private resources into the funding of environmentally related projects implemented by firms contributing to sustainable development. This paper examines the performance of European renewable energy funds that invest globally by comparing their risk-adjusted returns with those achieved by black energy and conventional mutual funds. It uses Carhart's model on a sample of 81 renewable energy funds, 125 black energy funds, and 4,337 conventional mutual funds. The results indicate that 32.1% of renewable mutual funds-most of which adopt energy producers, renewable energy technology, and energy efficiency-focused criteria-perform significantly better than the S&P Clean Energy market benchmark, this percentage being affected by the different states of the economy. However, none of them are able to beat the fossil fuel energy (S&P Global 1200 Energy Index) or conventional market benchmarks (S&P Global 1200 Index). Furthermore, 37.04% of renewable energy funds significantly underperform the S&P Global 1200 benchmark. Therefore, the investment in renewable energy funds has a financial cost for investors in relation to conventional fund investors.
Do renewable energy mutual funds advance towards clean energy-related sustainable development goals?
Renewable Energy, Aug 1, 2022
<p align="justify">Análisis de los Factores que Influyen en el Desempeño Académico de los Alumnos de Contabilidad Financiera a través de Modelos de Elección Binaria<br><br>Análise dos Fatores que Influenciam o Desempenho Acadêmico dos Alunos de Contabilidade por meio de Modelos Binários<br><br>An...
Revista Brasileira de Gestão De Negócios, 2012
<p align="justify"><b>RESUMEN</b><br>Los países miembros de la ... more <p align="justify"><b>RESUMEN</b><br>Los países miembros de la Unión Europea, entre ellos España, presentan una alta tasa de abandono y/o fracaso escolar, lo que implica un aumento del coste unitario de un licenciado y, consecuentemente, del gasto público destinado a la educación universitaria. Ante esta situación, conocer los factores que determinan el desempeño académico de los alumnos en las asignaturas matriculadas permitiría a los administradores mejorar la calidad docente y disminuir el coste en educación. Por ello, el propósito de esta investigación es examinar el efecto que ejercen los factores demográficos, institucionales, económicos y académicos sobre el desempeño académico de los alumnos. El estudio de estos factores se realiza a través del modelo de productividad educativa de Walberg (1981) fundamentado en la teoría del aprendizaje cognitivo. Para alcanzar este objetivo, se dispone de una base de datos que integra información relativa a 698 alumnos matriculados durante el curso 2009/2010 en la asignatura de contabilidad financiera en la UAB. Sobre dichos datos se aplican modelos de elección binaria. Los resultados muestran que la nota de acceso a la universidad, la titulación que está cursando el alumno, el género, los estudios previos cursados, la permanencia del profesor en la universidad y la franja horaria a la que acude el estudiante al aula, influyen en el desempeño académico del alumno. Dichos resultados son congruentes con la evidencia empírica previa. A partir de estos datos ha sido posible proponer diversas recomendaciones a administradores y profesores para mejorar la gestión en la asignatura de contabilidad financiera.<br><br><b>RESUMO</b><br>Os países-membros da União Europeia, entre eles a Espanha, apresentam uma elevada taxa de abandono e/ou fracasso escolar, o que implica um aumento do custo unitário de um graduado e, consequentemente, da despesa pública destinada à educação universitária. Diante dessa situação, conhecer os fatores que determinam o desempenho acadêmico dos alunos nas [...]
Do renewable energy mutual funds advance towards clean energy-related sustainable development goals?
Renewable Energy
International Conference on Gender Research
This study examines the relationship between gender equality scores for leadership and workforce ... more This study examines the relationship between gender equality scores for leadership and workforce dimension and financial performance of 554 US thematic mutual funds and 2,140 US conventional mutual funds investing globally or in the United States stock markets from January 2015 to May 2021. To this end, we implement the new Fama and French six-factor model and the Student’s t-parametric tests for the independent samples. Our results indicate that, in general, gender equality for leadership and workforce does not affect the financial performance of mutual funds focused on one sector related to sustainable development goals that invest in the United States market. However, we find that infrastructure mutual funds with higher levels of gender leadership and workforce equality that invest in the global market perform better than their counterparts with lower levels of gender equality. On the contrary, healthcare, water, information technology and gold and precious metals mutual funds wi...
Adquisición de competencias genéricas en el area de matemáticas financieras: el modelo webquest
De los proyectos de convergencia a la realidad de los nuevos títulos, 2008, ISBN 978-84-8021-679-1, 2008
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Papers by Carmen-Pilar Martí-Ballester