Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Gold Standard: Socially Responsible Investment Analysis

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility

  • 45 Accesses

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors describe the relevance of the gold and its influence across markets on the promotion of the socially responsible investment. Indeed, the relationship between social responsibility and investment is achieved through recommendations that it should lead the stakeholders to assume a higher degree of responsibility with lower level of risk management, knowing that the gold standard is a fundamental asset to the most important markets (Govett and Govett 1982). Investors recognize that managers have an incentive to promise that their investments will pay off considerable (Hillier et al. (2012) Financial markets and corporate strategy. McGraw-Hill Higher Education, London). This need obliges to change and to understand the relevance to increase transparency and accountability to the socially responsible investment. Therefore, the authors will answer to the research question: “Why the gold standard is relevant to the National Central Banks of the European Union?”

Methodologically, this research focuses, on the one hand, on the literature review to contextualize the socially responsible investment, in general, and the gold, in particular. Also, the research needs the support of the accounting standards. On the other hand, it promotes the open data research as especially important tool (Garcia-Aceves 2018), in the last years, which is rarely promoted (Davies et al. 2019). In this perspective, it can be seen over the years a growing concern about the need for data based on the annual report of the National Central Banks of the European Union, which plays an active role in the financial and the monetary policies of each Member State of European Union.

More than provide a literature review about the gold as an asset, it was made a discussion of different methodologies used by researchers to evidence gold as an investment that could be classified as social responsible because it gives the systematic running of the market by enlightening the confidence on the open data to the integrity of socially responsible investment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abramson L, Chung D (2000) Socially responsible investing: viable for value investors? J Invest 9(3):73–80

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Archel P, Husilhos J, Spence C (2011) The institutionalization of unaccountability: loading the dice of corporate social responsibility discourse. Acc Organ Soc 36(6):327–343

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker HK, Nofsinger JR (2012) Socially responsible finance and investing. An overview. In: Baker HK, Nofsinger JR (eds) Socially responsible finance and investing. Financial institutions, corporations, investors, and activists. Wiley, Hoboken, pp 1–14

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Ballestero E, Pérez-Gladish B, Garcia-Bernabeu A (2015) Socially responsible investment: a multi-criteria decision making approach. Springer, Heidelberg

    Google Scholar 

  • Banerjee D, Ghosal A, Mukherjee I (2019) Prediction of gold Price movement using geopolitical risk as a factor. In: Abraham A et al (eds) Emerging technologies in data mining and information security, advances in intelligent systems and computing. Springer, Singapore, pp 879–886

    Google Scholar 

  • Baur D, Lucey B (2006) Is gold a hedge or a safe haven? An analysis of stocks, bonds and gold. Discussion Paper No. 198. Institute for International Integration Studies, Dublin

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernstein P (2012) The power of gold: the history of an obsession. Wiley, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Biehl C, Hopner A, Liu J (2012) Social, environmental, and trust issues in business and finance. In: Baker HK, Nofsinger JR (eds) Socially responsible finance and investing. Financial institutions, corporations, investors, and activists. Wiley, Hoboken, pp 111–142

    Google Scholar 

  • Boatright JR (2010) Finance ethics. Critical issues in theory and practice. Wiley, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bollen N (2007) Mutual fund attributes and investor behavior. J Financ Quant Anal 42:683–708

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bordo M, Kydland FE (1995) The gold standard as a rule: an essay in exploration. Explor Econ Hist 32(4):423–464

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Capelle-Blancard G, Couderc N (2009) The impact of socially responsible investing: evidence from stock index redefinitions. J Invest 18(2):76–86

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Capie F, Mills T, Wood G (2005) Gold as a hedge against the dollar. Int Financ Mark Inst Money 15:343–352

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chai A, Wang L, Li D, Wang S, Zhong Y (2011) A research on the relationship between share price of Chinese gold enterprises and gold prices. In Lee G (ed) Advances in automation and robotics, vol 2, LNEE 123, pp 307–314. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, eISBN 978-3-642-25646-2

    Google Scholar 

  • Coates J (2015) Cost-benefit analysis of financial regulation: case studies and implications. Yale Law J 124(4):882–1011

    Google Scholar 

  • Corti C, Holliday R (2010) Gold: science and applications. CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group/World Gold Council, Boca Raton

    Google Scholar 

  • Crowther D, Rayman-Bacchus L (2004) The future of corporate social responsibility. In: Crowther D, Rayman-Bacchus L (eds) Perspectives on corporate social responsibility. Ashgates, Aldershot

    Google Scholar 

  • Crowther D, Seifi S, Wond T (2019) Responsibility and governance. The two pillars of sustainability. In: Crowther D et al (eds) Responsibility and governance, approaches to global Sustainabiltiy, markets, and governance. Springer, Leicester

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Anieri P (2017) International politics: power and purpose in global affairs. Cengage Learning, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies T, Walker SB, Rubinstein M, Perini F (2019) The state of open data: histories and horizons. African Minds and International Development Research Center, Cape Town

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dooley MPD, Folkerts-Landau D, Gaber P (2003) An essay on the revived Bretton woods system. NBER working paper n° 9971. Available at https://econpapers.repec.org/paper/nbrnberwo/9971.htm

  • Dubey P, Geanakoplos J, Shubik M (2003) Is gold an efficient store of value? Econ Theory 21:767–782

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elwell CK (2011) Brief history of the gold standard (GS) in the United States. CRS report for congress 7-5700. Congressional Research Service, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • European Central Bank (ECB) (2009) Decision (EU) 2009/998/EU of the ECB of 14 December 2009 on amending decision ECB/2001/16 on the allocation of monetary income of the national central banks of participating member states from the financial year 2002 (ECB/2009/27). Off J Eur Union L339

    Google Scholar 

  • European Central Bank (ECB) (2014) Legal framework of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks. ECB, Frankfurt am Main

    Google Scholar 

  • European Central Bank (ECB) (2016a) Protocol (n° 4) on the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and the European Central Bank. Off J Eur Union C 202

    Google Scholar 

  • European Central Bank (ECB) (2016b) Decision (EU) 2016/2247, of the ECB, of 3 November 2016 on the annual accounts of the ECB (ECB/2016/35). Off J Eur Union L 347

    Google Scholar 

  • European Central Bank (ECB) (2016c) Decision (EU) 2016/2248 of the ECB of 3 November 2016 on the allocation of monetary income of the national central banks of member states whose currency is the euro (ECB/2016/36). Off J Eur Union L 347

    Google Scholar 

  • European Central Bank (ECB) (2016d) Guideline (EU) 2016/2249, of the ECB, of 3 November 2016 on the legal framework for accounting and financial reporting in the European System of Central Banks (ECB/2016/34). Off J Eur Union, L 347

    Google Scholar 

  • European Central Bank (ECB) (2016e) ECB annual report on supervisory activities 2015. ECB, Frankfurt am Main

    Google Scholar 

  • European Central Bank (ECB) (2017) Decision (EU) 2017/2239 of the ECB of 16 November 2017 amending Decision (EU) 2016/2247 of the ECB of 3 November 2016 (ECB/2017/36). Off J Eur Union L 320

    Google Scholar 

  • European Central Bank (ECB) (2018) ECB annual report on supervisory activities 2017. ECB, Frankfurt am Main

    Google Scholar 

  • European Central Bank (ECB) (2019) ECB annual report on supervisory activities 2018. ECB, Frankfurt am Main

    Google Scholar 

  • European Central Bank (ECB) (2020) ECB annual report on supervisory activities 2019. ECB, Frankfurt am Main

    Google Scholar 

  • European Union (EU) (2012) Consolidated version of the treaty on the functioning of the European Union. Off J Eur Union, C326, 1–390

    Google Scholar 

  • Faugere C, van Erlach J (2004) The price of gold: a global required yield theory. Finance 0403003, EconWPA

    Google Scholar 

  • Garcia-Aceves R (2018) Open up guide: using open data to combat corruption. Open Data Change. Available at https://open-data-charter.gitbook.io/openup-guide-using-open-data-to-combat-corruption/

  • Govett MH, Govett GJ (1982) Gold demand and supply. Res Policy 8(2):84–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Green T (2007) The ages of gold. Gold Fields Minerals Services, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammer C (2013) Open data has little value if people can’t use it. Harv Bus Ver Blog Network 29. Available at https://hbr.org/2013/03/open-data-has-little-value-if

  • Heal G (2005) Corporate social responsibility: an economic and financial framework. Geneva Pap Risk Insur Issues Pract 30:387–409

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance (2018) Financing a sustainable European economy. Final report. European Union, Brussels

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill RP, Ainscough T, Shank T, Mnulland D (2007) Corporate social responsibility and socially responsible investing: a global perspective. J Bus Ethics 70(2):165–174

    Google Scholar 

  • Hillier D, Grinblatt M, Titman S (2012) Financial markets and corporate strategy. McGraw-Hill Higher Education, London

    Google Scholar 

  • International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation (IFRS) (2020) IFRS Standards Issue. London, IFRS, ISBN: 978-1-911629-46-7

    Google Scholar 

  • Joy M (2011) Gold and the US dollar: hedge or haven? Financ Res Lett 8(3):120–131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khan S, Bhardwaj S (2019) Time series forecasting of gold prices. In: Rathore VS et al (eds) Emerging trends in expert applications and security. Advances in intelligent systems and computing. Springer, Singapore, pp 63–71

    Google Scholar 

  • Knoll MS (2002) Ethical screening in modern financial markets: the conflicting claims underlying socially responsible investment. Bus Lawyer 57(2):681–726

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumar P, Ozisikyilmaz B, Liao W-K, Memik G, Choudhary A (2011) High performance data mining using R on heterogeneous platforms. In: Proceedings of the 25th IEEE international parallel and distributed processing symposium, workshops and Phd forum (IPDPSW ’11), pp 1720–1729

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumar J, Rao T, Srivastava S (2012) Economics of gold price movement-forecasting analysis using macro-economic, investor fear and investor behaviour features. In Srinivasa S, Bhatnagar V (eds) Big Data Analytics. BDA 2012, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 7678, pp 111–121. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. eISBN: 978-3-642-35542-4

    Google Scholar 

  • Kurtz L (2020) Three pillars of modern responsible investment. J Inves ESG Spec Issue 29(2):21–32

    Google Scholar 

  • London Bullion Market Association (LBMA 2020) Bullion Market: prices and data. London, LBMA. Available at http://www.lbma.org.uk/prices-and-data

  • London Gold Monetary Association (LGMA) (2020) Gold asset. LGMA, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Louche C, Lydenberg S (2010) Responsible investing, Chapter 21. In: Boatright JR (ed) Finance ethics. Critical issues in theory and practice. Wiley, London, pp 393–417

    Google Scholar 

  • Lyon F, Owen R (2019) Financing social enterprises and the demand for social investment. Strateg Chang 28(1):47–57

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nawaz M, Azam M, Aslam M (2020) Probable daily return on investments in gold. Gold Bull 53:47–54

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Noreen E (1988) The economics of ethics: a new perspective on agency theory. Acc Organ Soc 13(4):359–369

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor F, Lucey B, Batten J, Baur D (2015) The Financial Economics of Gold – A Survey. FIRN Research Paper No. 2628018. Available at https://ssrn.com/abstract=2628018 or https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2628018

  • O’Rourke KH, Taylor AM (2013) Cross of euros. J Econ Perspect 27(3):167–192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Open Data Charter (2015) International Open Data Charter. Availability https://opendatacharter.net

  • Open Data Charter (2018) International Open Data Charter. Availability https://opendatacharter.net

  • Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2015) G20/OECD principles of corporate governance. OECD Publishing, Paris. ISBN: 978-92-64-23688-2

    Google Scholar 

  • Owen DL (1990) Towards a theory of social investment: a review essay. Acc Organ Soc 15(3):249–265

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pérez-Gladish B, M’Zali B (2010) An AHP-based approach to mutual funds’ social performance measurement. Int J Mult Criteria Decis Mak 1(1):103–127

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reade (2018) Gold in 30 years. In Shishmanian A (ed) Gold 2048: the next 30 years for gold, pp 44–48. World Gold Council, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Renneboog L, ter Horst J, Zhang C (2008) Socially responsible investments: institutional aspects, performance, and investor behavior. J Bank Financ 32(9):1723–1742

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Revelli C, Viviani J-L (2015) Financial performance of socially responsible investing (SRI): what have we learned? A meta-analysis. Bus Ethics Eur Rev 24(2):158–185

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riley M, Wood R, Clark M, Wilkie E, Szivas E (2001) Researching and writing dissertations in business and management. Thomson Learning, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Sadorsky P (2014) Modeling volatility and conditional correlations between socially responsible investments, gold and oil. Econ Model 34:609–618

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sandberg J, Juravle C, Hedesström TM, Hamilton I (2009) The heterogeneity of socially responsible investment. J Bus Ethics 87(4):519–533

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sherman E (1982) Gold: a conservative, prudent, diversifier. J Portf Manag 8:21–27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shiller R (2012) Finance and the good society. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Sjaastad L (2008) The price of gold and the exchange rates: once again. Res Policy 33:118–124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sparkes R (2003) Socially responsible investment: a global revolution. Wiley, Hoboken

    Google Scholar 

  • Stranieri A, Zeleznikow J (2005) Knowledge discovery from legal databases. Springer, Dordrecht

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Szmigiera N (2020) Gold reserves: countries-with-the-largest-gold-reserves. Available at https://www.statista.com/statistics/267998/countries-with-the-largest-gold-reserves/

  • Tufano P (1998) The determinants of stock price exposure: financial engineering and the gold mining industry. J Financ 53(3):1015–1052

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tyrrell M, Brown M (2006) Sustainability compendium: updating our sustainable investable themes. Citigroup Global Markets. Citi Global Perspectives & Solutions, London

    Google Scholar 

  • US Sustainable and Responsible Investment (US SIF) (2020) Report on US sustainable, responsible and impact investing trends. US SIF, Washington

    Google Scholar 

  • Venable S (2011) Gold: a cultural encyclopedia. ABC-Clio, LLC, Santa Barbara

    Google Scholar 

  • Weil RL, Schipper K, Francis J (2014) Financial accounting: an introduction to concepts, methods and uses. Cengage Learning, London

    Google Scholar 

  • World Gold Council (2018a) Guidance for monetary authorities on the recommended practice in accounting for monetary gold. WGC, London

    Google Scholar 

  • World Gold Council (2018b) Gold 2018: the next 30 years for gold. WGC, London

    Google Scholar 

  • World Gold Council (2020) Times series on world office gold reserves since 2000. WGC, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Yan S, Ferraro F, Almandoz J (2019) The rise of socially responsible investment funds: the paradoxical role of the financial logic. Adm Sci Q 64(2):466–501

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yin R (2019) Case study research and applications: design and methods. SAGE, London

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Politécnico da Guarda/UDI-IPG/CICF-IPCA/CISeD-IPV, Guarda, Portugal

    Rute Abreu

  2. Universidade de Aveiro, GOVCOPP, Aveiro, Portugal

    Carlos Pinho

Authors
  1. Rute Abreu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Carlos Pinho
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rute Abreu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. De Montfort University, Leicester, UK

    David Crowther

  2. Social Responsibility Research Network, Derby, UK

    Shahla Seifi

Section Editor information

  1. De Montfort University, Leicester, UK

    David Crowther

  2. Social Responsibility Research Network (SRRNet), Derby, UK

    Shahla Seifi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Abreu, R., Pinho, C. (2020). Gold Standard: Socially Responsible Investment Analysis. In: Crowther, D., Seifi, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22438-7_74-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22438-7_74-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-22438-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-22438-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation