Female Equity Analysts and Corporate Environmental and Social Performance

Abstract

Using a hand-collected analyst sample matched with analyst reports and earnings conference calls, we explore the causal effect of female analyst coverage on corporate environmental and social (E&S) performance and establish the link between analyst research activities and them monitoring. We show that after an exogenous drop in female analyst coverage due to broker closures, firms experience a 7% decrease in E&S scores. We develop machine learning models to sift through 2.4 million reports and 120,000 call transcripts and show that female equity analysts are more likely to discuss E&S issues in reports and during calls than their male counterparts.

Keywords: female equity analysts; analyst monitoring; corporate environmental and social performance; corporate governance; data-centric AI; FinBERT; analyst reports; earnings conference calls

JEL Classification: G24; G30; G40