---
title: Retail Investor Reactions to ESG Scores
url: https://www.ml-quant.com/papers/ssrn/4539609/
site: ML-Quant (https://www.ml-quant.com)
updated: 2026-09-26
license: Summaries CC BY 4.0; links go to the original sources
index: https://www.ml-quant.com/llms.txt
identifier: SSRN 4539609
source_url: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4539609
featured: 2023-08-17
citations: unknown
topic: Other
---


# Retail Investor Reactions to ESG Scores

A study using Robinhood data found that during the COVID-19 pandemic, retail investors favored securities with high ESG sustainability scores, not for financial return but for their preference.

- Source: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4539609
- Identifier: SSRN 4539609
- Released: 2023-05-09
- First featured: Quant Letter No. 12 (2023-08-17): https://www.ml-quant.com/issues/2023-08-17/
- Citations (Semantic Scholar): not tracked
- Published in: not yet
- Topic: Other

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