Experimental Study on Sustainable Capitalism

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25550105
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Environmental policy and social systems
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: TAKEUCHI Kenji 神戸大学, 経済学研究科(研究院), 教授 (40299962)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): HONDA Tomonori 産業技術総合研究所, 安全科学研究部門, 研究員 (00425745) ; NISHINO Nariaki 東京大学, 工学系研究科, 准教授 (90401299)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 社会的責任投資 / 実験経済学 / 行動経済学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study aims, through laboratory-based economic experiments, to identify motivations for Socially Responsible Investment (SRI). We asked subjects to make decisions regarding stock investments on the basis of the three attributes of return, variance, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), so that we might estimate their utility function. We also conducted a dictator game and lottery-choice experiments to measure subjects’ heterogeneity in regard to three psychological factors: altruism, risk aversion, and time discount rate. We used psychological factors to apply a conditional logit model, and we examined whether these factors affect investment in the stock of companies that actively promote CSR. The main findings of this study are: that people who are more altruistic are more likely to be SRI investors; that the effect of risk aversion on SRI is statistically insignificant; that people who have a higher time discount rate significantly incline to be SRI investors.

Free Research Field

環境経済学