IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jrisks/v11y2023i6p112-d1168830.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

ESG Disclosure and Firm Performance: An Asset-Pricing Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Vinay Khandelwal

    (Jaipuria Institute of Management Jaipur, Jaipur 302033, India
    Stirling Management School, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK
    Institute of Business Management, GLA University, Mathura 281406, India)

  • Prashant Sharma

    (Jaipuria Institute of Management Noida, Noida 201309, India)

  • Varun Chotia

    (Jaipuria Institute of Management Jaipur, Jaipur 302033, India)

Abstract

Disclosing information on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) parameters is voluntary for most firms across the world. Companies disclose their performance on ESG datapoints due to two main reasons—(i) to gain the trust of stakeholders through increased transparency and (ii) to comply with regulations imposed by governments and investment houses. Using a dataset of companies disclosing ESG parameters during 2014–2021 from the S&P BSE 500 index, this study investigates the role of ESG disclosure on firm performance. We divide the constituent securities into three factors—size, value, and disclosure to study the premiums generated by firms on each factor using single-, double-, and triple-sorting approaches. We utilize time series regressions along with GRS tests to empirically test the presence of factor premiums. We find the significant role of factors size, value, disclosure, and a dummy variable for the COVID-19 pandemic period to explain the portfolio returns. The study found a negative ESG disclosure premium stating that firms with high levels of disclosure earn less returns compared with the firms with less disclosures. The findings of this study contrast with multiple studies in the past that have found a positive disclosure premium. Our findings help reconcile the mixed evidence on the disclosure–returns relationship.

Suggested Citation

  • Vinay Khandelwal & Prashant Sharma & Varun Chotia, 2023. "ESG Disclosure and Firm Performance: An Asset-Pricing Approach," Risks, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-22, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jrisks:v:11:y:2023:i:6:p:112-:d:1168830
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9091/11/6/112/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9091/11/6/112/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fama, Eugene F & French, Kenneth R, 1992. "The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 427-465, June.
    2. Shanken, Jay, 1985. "Multivariate tests of the zero-beta CAPM," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 327-348, September.
    3. Lo, Andrew W & MacKinlay, A Craig, 1990. "When Are Contrarian Profits Due to Stock Market Overreaction?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 3(2), pages 175-205.
    4. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2017. "International tests of a five-factor asset pricing model," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(3), pages 441-463.
    5. Lars Kaiser & Jan Welters, 2019. "Risk-mitigating effect of ESG on momentum portfolios," Journal of Risk Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 20(5), pages 542-555, October.
    6. Novy-Marx, Robert, 2013. "The other side of value: The gross profitability premium," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 1-28.
    7. Eun-Hee Kim & Thomas P. Lyon, 2015. "Greenwash vs. Brownwash: Exaggeration and Undue Modesty in Corporate Sustainability Disclosure," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(3), pages 705-723, June.
    8. Fama, Eugene F & MacBeth, James D, 1973. "Risk, Return, and Equilibrium: Empirical Tests," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 607-636, May-June.
    9. Kewei Hou & Chen Xue & Lu Zhang, 2015. "Editor's Choice Digesting Anomalies: An Investment Approach," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(3), pages 650-705.
    10. Aerts, Walter & Cormier, Denis & Magnan, Michel, 2008. "Corporate environmental disclosure, financial markets and the media: An international perspective," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 643-659, January.
    11. Eugene F Fama & Kenneth R French, 2020. "Comparing Cross-Section and Time-Series Factor Models," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(5), pages 1891-1926.
    12. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2015. "A five-factor asset pricing model," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 1-22.
    13. Kim, Yongtae & Li, Haidan & Li, Siqi, 2014. "Corporate social responsibility and stock price crash risk," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 1-13.
    14. Basu, Sanjoy, 1983. "The relationship between earnings' yield, market value and return for NYSE common stocks : Further evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 129-156, June.
    15. Bhandari, Laxmi Chand, 1988. " Debt/Equity Ratio and Expected Common Stock Returns: Empirical Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 43(2), pages 507-528, June.
    16. Eugene F Fama & Kenneth R French, 2021. "The Value Premium [Fundamentals and stock returns in Japan]," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 11(1), pages 105-121.
    17. Moinak Maiti & A. Balakrishnan, 2018. "Is human capital the sixth factor?," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 45(4), pages 710-737, September.
    18. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    19. Moinak Maiti, 2021. "Is ESG the succeeding risk factor?," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 199-213, July.
    20. Stephen A. Ross, 1976. "Options and Efficiency," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 90(1), pages 75-89.
    21. Fama, Eugene F & French, Kenneth R, 1988. "Permanent and Temporary Components of Stock Prices," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(2), pages 246-273, April.
    22. Gibbons, Michael R & Ross, Stephen A & Shanken, Jay, 1989. "A Test of the Efficiency of a Given Portfolio," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(5), pages 1121-1152, September.
    23. Patrick Velte & Martin Stawinoga, 2020. "Do chief sustainability officers and CSR committees influence CSR-related outcomes? A structured literature review based on empirical-quantitative research findings," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 333-377, December.
    24. Witold J. Henisz & James McGlinch, 2019. "ESG, Material Credit Events, and Credit Risk," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 31(2), pages 105-117, June.
    25. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    26. Joshua G. Rosett, 2001. "Equity Risk and the Labor Stock: The Case of Union Contracts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(2), pages 337-364, September.
    27. Benjamin Hübel & Hendrik Scholz, 2020. "Integrating sustainability risks in asset management: the role of ESG exposures and ESG ratings," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(1), pages 52-69, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Güler ARAS & İlhan ÇAM & Bilal ZAVALSIZ & Serkan KESKİN, 2018. "Fama-French Çok Faktör Varlık Fiyatlama Modellerinin Performanslarının Karşılaştırılması: Borsa İstanbul Üzerine Bir Uygulama," Istanbul Business Research, Istanbul University Business School, vol. 47(2), pages 183-207, November.
    2. Joachim Freyberger & Andreas Neuhierl & Michael Weber, 2020. "Dissecting Characteristics Nonparametrically," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(5), pages 2326-2377.
    3. Hou, Kewei & Xue, Chen & Zhang, Lu, 2017. "Replicating Anomalies," Working Paper Series 2017-10, Ohio State University, Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics.
    4. Moinak Maiti & Darko Vuković, 2020. "Role of human assets in measuring firm performance and its implication for firm valuation," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 9(1), pages 1-27, December.
    5. Berggrun, Luis & Cardona, Emilio & Lizarzaburu, Edmundo, 2020. "Firm profitability and expected stock returns: Evidence from Latin America," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    6. Cederburg, Scott & O’Doherty, Michael S. & Wang, Feifei & Yan, Xuemin (Sterling), 2020. "On the performance of volatility-managed portfolios," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(1), pages 95-117.
    7. Cong, Lin William & George, Nathan Darden & Wang, Guojun, 2023. "RIM-based value premium and factor pricing using value-price divergence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    8. Kolari, James W. & Huang, Jianhua Z. & Butt, Hilal Anwar & Liao, Huiling, 2022. "International tests of the ZCAPM asset pricing model," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    9. Figlioli, Bruno & Lima, Fabiano Guasti, 2019. "Stock pricing in Latin America: The synchronicity effect," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-17.
    10. Doha Belimam & Yong Tan & Ghizlane Lakhnati, 2018. "An Empirical Comparison of Asset-Pricing Models in the Shanghai A-Share Exchange Market," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 25(3), pages 249-265, September.
    11. Guo, Bin & Zhang, Wei & Zhang, Yongjie & Zhang, Han, 2017. "The five-factor asset pricing model tests for the Chinese stock market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 84-106.
    12. Ben Ammar, Semir & Eling, Martin & Milidonis, Andreas, 2018. "The cross-section of expected stock returns in the property/liability insurance industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 292-321.
    13. Rocciolo, Francesco & Gheno, Andrea & Brooks, Chris, 2022. "Explaining abnormal returns in stock markets: An alpha-neutral version of the CAPM," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    14. Mbengue, Mohamed Lamine & Ndiaye, Bara & Sy, Oumar, 2023. "Which factors explain African stock returns?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    15. Kaserer Christoph & Hanauer Matthias X., 2017. "25 Jahre Fama-French-Modell: Erklärungsgehalt, Anomalien und praktische Implikationen," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 18(2), pages 98-116, June.
    16. Gonçalves, Andrei S. & Leonard, Gregory, 2023. "The fundamental-to-market ratio and the value premium decline," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(2), pages 382-405.
    17. Lin, Hung-Wen & Huang, Jing-Bo & Lin, Kun-Ben & Zhang, Joyce & Chen, Shu-Heng, 2020. "Which is the better fourth factor in China? Reversal or turnover?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    18. Hanauer, Matthias X. & Kalsbach, Tobias, 2023. "Machine learning and the cross-section of emerging market stock returns," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    19. Stephen A. Gorman & Frank J. Fabozzi, 2021. "The ABC’s of the alternative risk premium: academic roots," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(6), pages 405-436, October.
    20. Ball, Ray & Gerakos, Joseph & Linnainmaa, Juhani T. & Nikolaev, Valeri, 2016. "Accruals, cash flows, and operating profitability in the cross section of stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(1), pages 28-45.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jrisks:v:11:y:2023:i:6:p:112-:d:1168830. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.