Socially Responsible Investment in Post-Communist and Developed European Countries

The recent financial crisis has boosted the popularity of ethical investing, evidence of this being the large number of European investment funds based on corporate social responsibility and the increasing value of the assets they manage. These funds are not developing evenly, their positions varying from country to country. Significant disproportions can be seen between European countries with mature financial markets and the emerging markets in post-Communist countries. A comparative analysis confirms the hypothesis of a major asymmetry in the development of these funds in favor of non-post-Communist countries. This asymmetry can be set down not only to a generally higher level of development of financial markets there but also to a more favorable set of institutional conditions in many of these countries.