On December 19, the Social Investment Forum (SIF) posted the full text of “The Wages of Social Responsibility,” winner of the 2008 Moskowitz Prize. SIF, in cooperation with the Center for Resposible Business at the Haas School of Business, has awarded this annual prize for “excellent research in the SRI field” since 1996.

The abstract for “The Wages of Social Responsibility,” by Meir Statman of Santa Clara University and Denys Glushkov of Barclays Global Investors, is excerpted below. Click here to review this and other Moskowitz Prize-winning papers.

”Typical socially responsible investors tilt their portfolios toward stocks of companies with high scores on social responsibility characteristics such as community, employee relations and the environment. We analyze returns during 1992-2007 of stocks rated on social responsibility by KLD and find that this tilt gave socially responsible investors a return advantage relative to conventional investors. …

“Socially responsible investors can do both well and good by adopting the best-in-class method in the construction of their portfolios. …”

For more about Statman and Glushkov’s paper, click here for a review by the Center for Responsible Business.