Stock Price Reactions to ESG News: The Role of ESG Ratings and Disagreement
Forthcoming, Review of Accounting Studies
44 Pages Posted: 13 Jan 2021 Last revised: 30 Aug 2021
Date Written: January 13, 2021
Abstract
We investigate whether ESG ratings predict future ESG news and the associated market reactions. We find that the consensus rating predicts future news, but its predictive ability diminishes for firms with large disagreement between raters. Relation between news and market reaction is moderated by the consensus rating. In the presence of high disagreement between raters, the relation between news and market reactions weakens while the rating with most predictive power predicts future stock returns. Overall, while rating disagreement hinders the incorporation of value relevant ESG news into prices, ratings predict future news and proxy for market expectations of future news.
Keywords: ESG; ESG (environmental, social, governance) performance; ESG (environmental/social/governance) performance; ESG disclosure; ESG ratings; ESG reporting; ESG disclosure metrics; sustainability; Investments; news; disagreement; rating disagreement; ratings
JEL Classification: G12, G14, M4
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