원문정보
초록
영어
This study examines the effect of credit rating concerns on corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) behavior. We use the plus or minus test on a large sample of ESG scores and S&P credit ratings of U.S. publicly traded firms from 2003 to 2017. We find that firms with credit rating concerns often increase their ESG activities. This finding holds even after we control for various variables affecting ESG practices. Moreover, firms on the boundary between investment- and speculative-grade ratings significantly improve their ESG performance compared to other cases. Finally, we find evidence that the positive effect of credit rating concerns on ESG activities is pronounced during the global financial crisis and then strengthens further. Overall, our study highlights the impact of credit ratings on corporate ESG behavior. (JEL G24, G32, M14)
목차
1. Introduction
2. Related Literature and Hypothesis Development
2.1 Credit Ratings
2.2 ESG and Credit Ratings
2.3 Credit Ratings and ESG after the Global Financial Crisis
3. Data and Empirical Methods
3.1 Data and Variables Description
3.2 Empirical Methods
4. Results
4.1 Descriptive Statistics
4.2 Credit Rating Concerns and ESG
4.3 Effects of Credit Rating Concerns on ESG after the GFC
4.4 Robustness Checks
5. Concluding Remarks
Appendix