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Reconsidering systematic factors during the Covid-19 pandemic – The rising importance of ESG

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  • Díaz, Violeta
  • Ibrushi, Denada
  • Zhao, Jialin

Abstract

We investigate the importance of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) ratings in explaining different industry returns during the Covid-19 window. We build our ESG factor as the spread in returns between firms in the top ESG quartile and those in the bottom ESG quartile. The ESG factor shows to significantly explain industry returns in addition to the Fama-French factors. We also analyze the individual Environmental, Social, and Governance components of ESG. Environmental and Social dimensions are the main drivers of the ESG impact on different industries.

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  • Díaz, Violeta & Ibrushi, Denada & Zhao, Jialin, 2021. "Reconsidering systematic factors during the Covid-19 pandemic – The rising importance of ESG," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:38:y:2021:i:c:s1544612320316846
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2020.101870
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    Cited by:

    1. Dumrose, Maurice & Rink, Sebastian & Eckert, Julia, 2022. "Disaggregating confusion? The EU Taxonomy and its relation to ESG rating," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    2. Zhang, Xiaoke & Zhao, Xuankai & Qu, Linshan, 2021. "Do green policies catalyze green investment? Evidence from ESG investing developments in China," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    3. Sandu Diana-Mihaela, 2023. "Is There Any Effect of ESG Scores on Portfolio Performance in South Africa?," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 17(1), pages 1807-1817, July.
    4. Wang, Kai & Li, Tingting & San, Ziyao & Gao, Hao, 2023. "How does corporate ESG performance affect stock liquidity? Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    5. Fredy Pokou & Jules Sadefo Kamdem & François Benhmad, 2024. "Empirical Performance of an ESG Assets Portfolio from US Market," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 64(3), pages 1569-1638, September.
    6. Naffa, Helena & Fain, Máté, 2022. "A factor approach to the performance of ESG leaders and laggards," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    7. Ni, Yinan & Sun, Yanfei, 2023. "Environmental, social, and governance premium in Chinese stock markets," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    8. Patricia Rozalia PIRVU, 2023. "The Esg Index And The Stock Return During The Pandemic," Proceedings of the INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 17(1), pages 707-720, November.
    9. Muneer Shaik & Mohd Ziaur Rehman, 2023. "The Dynamic Volatility Connectedness of Major Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Stock Indices: Evidence Based on DCC-GARCH Model," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 30(1), pages 231-246, March.
    10. Pedini, Luca & Severini, Sabrina, 2022. "Exploring the hedge, diversifier and safe haven properties of ESG investments: A cross-quantilogram analysis," MPRA Paper 112339, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Neetu Yadav & Vandana Bhama, 2023. "Sustainability, Resilience, and Returns During COVID-19: Empirical Evidence from US and Indian Stock Markets," Journal of Emerging Market Finance, Institute for Financial Management and Research, vol. 22(2), pages 215-238, June.
    12. Dhasmana, Samriddhi & Ghosh, Sajal & Kanjilal, Kakali, 2023. "Does investor sentiment influence ESG stock performance? Evidence from India," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    13. Lei, Ni & Miao, Qin & Yao, Xin, 2023. "Does the implementation of green credit policy improve the ESG performance of enterprises? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    14. Zengfu Li & Liuhua Feng & Zheng Pan & Hafiz M. Sohail, 2022. "ESG performance and stock prices: evidence from the COVID-19 outbreak in China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-10, December.
    15. Panos Xidonas & Eric Essner, 2024. "On ESG Portfolio Construction: A Multi-Objective Optimization Approach," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 63(1), pages 21-45, January.
    16. Alan Francisco Caraveo Gomez Llanos & Annas Vijaya & Hendro Wicaksono, 2024. "Rating ESG key performance indicators in the airline industry," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(11), pages 27629-27653, November.
    17. Sandu Diana-Mihaela, 2024. "The Effect of ESG Scores on Portfolio Performance. Evidence from Europe," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 18(1), pages 442-450.
    18. Boglarka Bianka Kovacs & Gábor Neszveda & Eszter Baranyai & Adam Zaremba, 2024. "ESG unpacked: Environmental, social, and governance pillars and the stock price reaction to the invasion of Ukraine," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 14(3), pages 755-777, September.
    19. Alfred Mbairadjim Moussa & Jules Sadefo Kamdem, 2022. "A fuzzy multifactor asset pricing model," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 313(2), pages 1221-1241, June.
    20. Wang, Kai & Chen, Xi & Wang, Chenye, 2023. "The impact of sustainable development planning in resource-based cities on corporate ESG–Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).
    21. Shiyu Lu & Bo Cheng, 2023. "Does environmental regulation affect firms' ESG performance? Evidence from China," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(4), pages 2004-2009, June.
    22. Staněk Gyönyör, Lucie & Horváth, Matúš, 2024. "Does ESG affect stock market dependence? An empirical exploration of S&P 1200 companies shows the divergent nature of E–S–G pillars," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).

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