Sofia Ramos

This paper emphasizes the importance of transparency in sustainable development to mitigate fraud and corruption crimes in the world. The devaluation of justice and the rule of law is allowing fraud and corruption crimes to go unpunished, reducing transparency in the sustainable development of the society. Also, this paper aims to analyze and compare the extent of corruption worldwide, identifying its impact on society as well as the possible social and economic consequences. Methodologically, this research is divided into two different analyzes. Firstly, a theoretical analysis based on a systematic review of the literature on the impact of fraud and corruption offenses in the world and the identification of the path to transparency for a sustainable society. Subsequently, an empirical analysis of the rankings of the corruption perception index in the world between 2012 and 2023. The findings show that corruption is thriving all over the world, essentially pointing to failures in the integrity of transparency policies and, above all, the weakening of judicial systems that allow these levels of corruption. This manuscript contributes, on the one hand, to identifying measures that contribute to the paradigm shift through fair rule of law policies. On the other hand, it contributes to the literature review to highlight sustainable solutions that make it possible to minimize the impacts of fraud and corruption crimes in the world by promoting social and economic justice, human rights, peace and security in society.

This article investigates whether sustainability labels for mutual funds in Europe provide consistent signals regarding funds’ sustainable characteristics. Specifically, we assess the alignment of signals conveyed by third-party and self-declared labels. Among the first typology, we consider labels sponsored by government and nonprofit organizations (GNPOs) alongside Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings from commercial data vendors. The latter category includes the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) classification and an ESG-related name. Our findings indicate that equity funds with GNPO labels are more likely to exhibit top-tier ESG ratings and alignment with self-declared sustainability signals, namely Article 9 of SFDR and fund names. Furthermore, holding government and multiple GNPO labels is linked to other signals indicating higher sustainability standards. In addition, funds tend to experience an improvement in Morningstar globes after receiving a GNPO label, consistent with GNPO labels signaling funds of the high-quality type. The results regarding label alignment in fixed-income funds are less conclusive. Our findings underscore the need for credible signals in view of the growing number of sustainability labels available to investors.