Time-varying Connectedness Between ESG Stocks and BRVM Traditional Stocks

Periods of crisis prompt investors to look out for means of making returns even in uncertain market conditions. Investors are using stocks selected on an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) basis to mitigate the unavoidable risks of investing in assets during these times of pandemic and war. In an integrated global financial system, we sought to explore the connectedness, if any, between the returns on the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM) and ESG-based stocks. Using a time-varying parameter vector autoregression (TVP-VAR) to analyze daily returns from 12 March 2013 to 4 April 2022, we find categorically that ESG-based stocks and BRVM stocks are connected, with ESG-based stocks dominating the network connectedness. Furthermore, using dynamic connectedness correlations from dynamic conditional correlation generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (DCC-GARCH), we show that ESG stocks could be used as a safe haven or weak hedge for BRVM stocks in times of crisis. We test for the robustness of our findings using quantile causality. The causality test further shows that ESG-based stocks cause movements in BRVM stocks mostly at the lower quantiles—enhancing the findings of dominancy from the TVP-VAR estimates and offer diversification and safe haven benefits from the DCC-GARCH in extreme conditions. The implication of these findings for investors is that they could benefit from using ESG-based stocks in their portfolios, particularly in times of crisis.JEL Codes: G01, G11