IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/quaeco/v100y2025ics106297692500016x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

ESG rating, rating divergence and investment efficiency: International evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Lin, Yu-En
  • Teng, Shi
  • Yu, Bo
  • Lam, Keith S.K.

Abstract

This study investigates the relation between ESG ratings and firm investment efficiency and the moderate effect of ESG rating divergence on the relation. Using a sample of firms from 43 countries for the period between 2010 and 2022, we document a significantly positive relation between ESG ratings and firm investment efficiency and a significant negative moderate effect of ESG rating divergence on the positive relation. We also find four firm-level transmission channels-financial constraints, cash flows, opacity, and transparency-affect the ESG and investment inefficiency relation. In addition, our results indicate that the positive relation and the negative moderate effect can be explained by firms’ agency costs. The results hold in endogeneity and robustness tests.

Suggested Citation

  • Lin, Yu-En & Teng, Shi & Yu, Bo & Lam, Keith S.K., 2025. "ESG rating, rating divergence and investment efficiency: International evidence," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:quaeco:v:100:y:2025:i:c:s106297692500016x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.qref.2025.101975
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S106297692500016X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.qref.2025.101975?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ESG ratings; Investment efficiency; ESG rating divergence;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:eee:quaeco:v:100:y:2025:i:c:s106297692500016x. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620167 .

    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.