Environmental, Social, and Governance Issues and the Financial Analysts Journal

Abstract

Over the last 75 years, the Financial Analysts Journal has commonly led other finance journals in featuring articles on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. These articles have been written by academics, practitioners, and the journal's editors and always include a perspective of how these issues affect finance practice. In particular, the Financial Analysts Journal has been in the forefront with articles on the social responsibility of business and its investors; the performance of firms, investment funds, and indexes that follow ESG (or socially responsible investment [SRI]) principles; the effects of divestment; climate risk; impact investing; and the need for more ESG disclosure. Many of these topics have led to extensive debates over time, and it is notable that the journal typically presents both sides of a question so that its readers can be informed to make their own decisions. In addition, many of the points brought out in this collective body of work remain important today.

Presidential Address: Sustainable Finance and ESG Issues—ValueversusValues

“…For discussions on the history of investing based on values, see, for example,Renneboog, ter Horst, and Zhang (2008) andStarks (2021).4 Consistent with the terminology confusion discussed above, ESG investing could also be shown as encompassing both SRI and impact investing. I have displayed them as distinct in order to highlight the differences.5 Impact investing usually involves expectation of receiving both financial and social returns, where the social returns are based on both intentionality and additionality.…”

“…Additional studies on ESG ratings and stock returns include Brandon Gibson,Krueger, and Schmidt (2021) andBerg et al (2021).15 Whether a business should pay particular attention to environmental and social issues (or whether they should practice social responsibility) has been a subject of debate among finance academics and practitioners for many years. For examples of earlier contributions, seeStarks (2021).…”

“…This could also extend to employees in other countries as Briscoe-Tran (2023) employs employees' reviews posted on Glassdoor.com and finds that employees have access to information useful for assessing firms' ESG practices.45 There exists an active debate on the related question of stakeholder capitalism versus shareholder capitalism. This topic is well discussed in other work (e.g.,Hart and Zingales (2017), Bebchuk and Tallarita (2020),Edmans (2020),Karpoff (2021),Starks (2021),Graham (2022)), and thus I do not discuss it here.…”

Mapping the environmental, social and governance literature: a bibliometric and content analysis

“…Investors who invest in the companies through bonds have more potential than equity investors to adopt policies for carbon emissions through covenant in bond indenture (Focardi and Fabozzi, 2020). A structured review study (Starks, 2021) identified a lack of standards and comparability across firms, a lack of reliable data and a need for quantifiable ESG data as critical issues concerning ESG information. In a distinct study (Azar et al ., 2021) studied the role of three big institutional investors (i.e.…”

Pengaruh Pengungkapan Environmental, Social Dan Governance (Esg) Terhadap Kinerja Perusahaan Pada Perusahaan Sub Sektor Pertambangan Batu Bara Periode 2017-2022

“…ESG menjelaskan serangkaian faktor yang digunakan untuk mengukur dampak non-keuangan dari investasi dan perusahaan tertentu. Pada saat yang sama, ESG juga menyediakan berbagai peluang bisnis dan investasi (Starks, 2021). Meskipun informasi ESG mungkin tidak memiliki standarisasi, para ahli berpendapat bahwa informasi tersebut dapat membantu beradaptasi dengan perubahan lingkungan dan bahkan menjadi bagian dari strategi kompetitif perusahaan (Giannopoulos et al, 2022).…”