ESG Performance and Disclosure: A Cross-Country Analysis

ESG Performance and Disclosure: A Cross-Country Analysis

Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes, Joseph McCahery, Paul C. Pudschedl

Series number :

Serial Number: 
481/2019

Date posted :

December 17 2019

Last revised :

December 17 2019
SSRN Share

Keywords

  • ESG • 
  • Sustainable Finance • 
  • stewardship codes • 
  • Financial Performance • 
  • Disclosure

We use a unique dataset to examine the link between ESG disclosure and quality through a cross-country comparison of disclosure requirements and stewardship codes. We find a strong relationship between the extent of ESG disclosure and the quality of a firm’s disclosure. Furthermore, we find that ESG is correlated with decreased risk.

This result suggests that firms with good ESG scores are simply disclosing more information. Finally, we show that ESG scores have little or no impact on risk-adjusted financial performance.

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Published in

Published in: 

Authors

Real name:
Paul C. Pudschedl
Real name:
Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes
Professor
Real name:
Joseph McCahery
Research Member
Tilburg University Faculty of Law and Tilburg Law and Economics Center