The effect of cross-listing on the environmental,social, and governance performance of firms

We propose that cross-listing is associated with better environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance, because cross-listed firms adopt ESG practices to mitigate the liability of foreignness (LOF) in foreign financial markets. Institutionalization processes have made ESG practices important for managing challenges associated with the LOF. With tests involving the S&P Global 1200 index, we show that cross-listing improves corporate social responsibility (CSR; i.e., social and environmental dimensions) but not corporate governance. The effects of cross-listing on CSR also depend on investor protection regimes of listing destinations: Stronger regimes correspond with poorer CSR performance, suggesting that they limit managerial discretion.     

Is sustainability rating material to the market?

This study examines whether information about a firm's engagement in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices is material to market participants. Evidence from a sample of 1856 initial public offerings (IPOs) by U.S. companies for the 2007–2018 period robustly documents that firms for which there is available ESG performance information prior to going public exhibit higher underpricing due to a positive market response. Such a reaction is validated by agency cost-reducing practices that ESG-rated firms follow prior to the IPO, the superior post-IPO market performance they exhibit in terms of equity financing, and the higher share of financially sophisticated investors they attract compared to their ESG-unrated peers. Overall, our results highlight that it pays off to do good and to have the right investors; however, firms’ good ESG practices need to be visible to the market, through rating practices, to reap the benefits.     

企业ESG绩效会影响商业信用融资吗？——基于信息传递与治理赋能视角

基于2007—2021年沪深两市A股上市公司数据,探讨ESG绩效对商业信用融资的影响及作用机制。研究发现：ESG绩效提升了企业商业信用融资能力;机制检验发现,ESG绩效提高了信息传递效率和公司治理水平,从而影响商业信用融资;区分样本发现,ESG绩效对商业信用融资的影响在低竞争地位、非污染性行业、东部地区和环保法实施后的样本中更为显著。以上研究结论为企业进行ESG实践,提升商业信用融资水平提供了经验借鉴。     

Environmental,Social and Governance investing: Does rating matter?

In the last decade, the demand for sustainable and social investments has improved. The mutual funds industry has responded to market needs by offering a number of investment products focused on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) companies. The aim of this article is to understand if an ESG score can actually be considered a valid criterion that portfolio managers could adopt, along with traditional risk–return optimisation, in selecting asset portfolios. The paper analyses the link between the performance and the ESG score of different sectoral portfolios (one for each sector of the Global Industry Classification Standard), entirely composed of ESG assets, in the search for a clear and strong positive correlation that could suggest an overall advantage to focus on an ex ante choice of assets with high ESG scores.     

ESG表现与企业金融化——内外监管双“管”齐下的调节效应

以2011—2018年A股非金融、非房地产上市公司为样本,探讨环境、社会责任及公司治理（ESG）表现对企业金融化的影响效应。研究表明：ESG表现抑制了企业金融化,而企业内部监管会放大ESG表现对企业金融化的负向效应,外部金融监管则弱化了两者之间的负向关系。抑制效应、放大效应和弱化效应在环境、社会责任方面体现较为明显,而在公司治理方面不明显。进一步研究发现,ESG表现以及环境、社会责任能通过融资约束抑制企业金融化行为,融资约束在公司治理对企业金融化的影响中不具有中介作用;异质性分析发现ESG表现以及环境、社会责任对企业金融化的抑制效应在国有企业、研发能力较强企业中较为显著,而公司治理在非国有企业和研发能力较强的企业中表现出正向的金融化效应。研究结果丰富了ESG表现影响企业金融化的理论机制,为完善上市公司监管制度体系、夯实实体经济发展根基提供了依据。     

The impact of direct environmental,social, and governance reporting: Empirical evidence in European-listed companies in the agri-food sector

Companies are continuously pressured for the dissemination of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information, because of the constant debate on the issue of corporate sustainability, considered a critical and very important topic for society; despite this pressure, ESG's disclosure practices vary considerably from company to company, both in quantity and quality. The study aims to address the issue and verify the effectiveness of ESG reporting through the influence that the ESG disclosure has on profitability and value of listed European agri-food companies. The results obtained, studying a sample of 57 European-listed companies (EU28) in the agri-food sector observed in the period 2010–2018, show that the ESG disclosure practices of the companies impact corporate profitability; specifically, evidence is provided for the existence of a positive relationship between profitability and disclosure practices of strictly environmental and social information and a negative effect between company market value and disclosure practices relating to governance. These results suggest that greater transparency and accountability help to improve business profitability.     

Local government centralization and corporate ESG performance: Evidence from China’s county-to-district reform

As a city–county consolidation with Chinese characteristics, China’s county-to-district (CtD) reform transfers a county’s autonomy to a city, thereby strengthening the administrative, decision-making, fiscal and other powers of the prefecture-level municipal government, which effectively enables the centralization of local governments. Based on this exogenous quasi-natural experiment, we use a difference-in-differences (DID) approach to empirically examine the impact of prefecture-level municipal government centralization on companies’ ESG performance. The results show that municipal government centralization can significantly promote corporate ESG performance, which represents environmental protection, social responsibility and corporate governance behavior. The mechanism analysis also shows that the CtD reform can address market segmentation, alleviate policy uncertainty and reduce rent-seeking, which further improves ESG performance.     

Corporate stakeholders,corporate valuation and ESG

In addition to explicit contracts, corporations issue their stakeholders implicit claims, including fair treatment of employees and the promise of continuing service to customers. Corporate value is created by selling these implicit claims for more than it costs to honour them. Recently, a new class of non-investor stakeholders, related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, has arisen. Although many ESG advocates stress their role in creating shareholder value, they do not explain how this value creation occurs. This paper shows that implicit claims provide a critical link that ties non-investor stakeholders and ESG to shareholder value, both its creation and its possible destruction.     

ESG表现对企业财务绩效的影响研究

ESG已成为衡量企业表现的重要指标。研究企业ESG评级对企业绩效的影响,有利于激发企业的ESG意识,使企业积极承担ESG披露责任,弥合投资者与企业的信息不对称。构建固定效应模型,以2010—2020年A股上市公司为研究样本,对企业污染程度的异质性、企业性质、区域发展程度等进行进一步测试,考察企业ESG评级与企业财务业绩的关系及信息透明的机制效应。实证表明：(1)良好的ESG性能对企业业绩有直接的促进作用;(2)企业信息透明度为其机制;(3)ESG表现与企业绩效的关系受企业污染程度、企业性质、区域经济发展水平的影响,低污染、非国有、东部地区及非省会城市企业ESG评级更能显著提升企业绩效。根据以上结论,本文同时提供决策可借鉴的经验。