The ethical and non ehical mutual funds comparison

The aim of this paper is to describe the ethical and non ethical mutual funds under Italian and foreign law highlighting if some factors, such as performance, typology (equity, balanced, bond), geographical area of location, management fees, characterize these funds in different way. The analysis has been carried out by collecting a data set of 219 mutual funds published on www.morningstar.com. The data set is subdivided in 109 ethical mutual funds and 110 non ethical mutual funds. The study uses a multi-disciplinary approach and it is led by a Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) which puts in evidence the principal characteristics of the mutual funds by their projection on the factorial plane. Together with the MCA the multivariate analysis carries out typologies of mutual funds with particular characteristics by a Cluster Analysis. The study confirms the existence of different characteristics with reference to the ethical and non ethical mutual funds.