María Vargas

Associate Professor · Department of Accounting and Finance

IEDIS · University of Zaragoza

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Short Bio

María Vargas is an Associate Professor at the Accounting and Finance Department and an associate researcher at the Institute on Employment, Digital Society and Sustainability (IEDIS) at the University of Zaragoza. María teaches in degree and master’s subjects related to corporate finance and financial markets.

Her research, initially focused on mutual funds in general, gradually evolved towards socially responsible investment funds. Her main research interests include the impact of non-financial constraints on fund managers' skills; investor reactions to ESG strategies and their ability to distinguish between genuine ESG funds and so-called "greenwashers"; the cash-flow timing skills of socially responsible investors; product differentiation strategies based on fund prospectus information; and style-deviation practices and their effects on fund flows and sustainability scores. She has supervised four PhD dissertations, three of which focused on mutual funds.

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Selected Publications

2024
Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility
The power of ethical words.
2022
Journal of Multinational Financial Management
Product differentiation in the socially responsible mutual fund industry
2021
Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal
Style-changing behavior in the socially responsible mutual fund industry: consequences on financial and sustainable performance
2020
Business Ethics – A European Review
Socially responsible mutual fund exit decisions
2014
Journal of Business Ethics
Environmental mutual funds: Financial performance and managerial abilities