Authors: Maurice Dumrose (University of Kassel), Julia Eckert (University of Kassel), Daniel Engler (University of Kassel), Gunnar Gutsche (University of Kassel) and Bernhard Zwergel (University of Kassel)
The EU taxonomy for sustainable activities is a cornerstone in the European Union’s efforts to redirect private capital towards sustainable investments. We examine people’s awareness and opinions of the EU taxonomy. We analyze data from two studies conducted in 2021: i) survey data from a sample of the adult population in Germany, and ii) data from a discrete choice experiment conducted among individual investors in France and Germany. Based on study I, we find that awareness of the EU taxonomy is very low. However, the majority of people agree with its definition of environmental sustainability and believe that it increases the credibility and attractiveness of sustainable investments. In particular, financially literate people, sustainable investors, and people with already high levels of trust perceive the EU taxonomy as adding value. Based on study II, we find that individual investors in Germany and France, on average, prefer funds that are more compliant with the EU taxonomy. These results have important implications for policy makers and practitioners.
Authors: Quyen Nguyen (University of Otago), Ivan Diaz-Rainey (Griffith University), Adam Kitto (University of New South Wales), Nicholas Pittman (EMMI), Renzhu Zhang (University of Otago)
