ESG评级分歧与企业经营风险

ESG Rating Divergence and Business Risk

随着ESG意识的提高和可持续发展的重要性日益突显,ESG评级已成为学术界和实务界讨论的重点问题,但目前中国ESG评级标准并不统一,不同评级机构给出的评分有较大分歧,这是否会对企业经营风险产生影响?基于此,本文以2015—2022年中国A股上市公司为样本,使用华证、万德、富时罗素、商道融绿、盟浪、彭博6家评级机构的评级结果构建ESG评级分歧指标,实证检验了ESG评级分歧对企业经营风险的影响。结果显示,ESG评级分歧显著提高了企业经营风险,这一结论在经过一系列内生性稳健性检验后依然成立。机制检验发现,ESG评级分歧通过加剧信息不对称以及抑制投资者情绪进而提高企业经营风险。异质性分析表明,ESG评级分歧对企业经营风险的提升作用在非国有企业、信息质量较差的企业和高市场化企业更强。进一步研究发现,相比于ESG评级机构间分析差异,被评级企业本身ESG信息披露不规范是ESG评级分歧加剧企业经营风险的主要原因。研究结论为监管机构规范ESG评级标准以引导企业规范披露,推动中国ESG评级体系建设提供了重要借鉴。

With the improvement of ESG awareness and the increasing importance of sustainable development,ESG rating has become a focal point of discussion in both academic and practical fields.However,at present,the ESG rating standards in China are not unified,and there is significant divergence in the scores given by different rating agencies.Will this have an impact on business risk?Based on this,using Chinese A-share listed companies from 2015 to 2022 as the research sample,the ESG rating divergence index was constructed using the ratings of Huazheng,Wind,FTSE Russell,SynTao Green Finance,SusallWave and Bloomberg,and the impact of ESG rating divergence on business risk was empirically tested.It is found that ESG rating differences significantly increase the business risk of enterprises,and this conclusion is still valid after a series of endogenous robustness tests.The mechanism test finds that ESG rating divergence increases business risks by aggravating information asymmetry and inhibiting investor sentiment.Heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of ESG rating divergence on business risk is stronger in non-state-owned enterprises,enterprises with poor information quality and highly marketized enterprises.Further research finds that compared with the differences in the analysis of ESG rating agencies,the non-standard disclosure of ESG information by the rated enterprises themselves is the main reason why the ESG rating divergence aggravates the business risk of the enterprises.The research conclusions provide an important reference for regulators to standardize ESG rating standards to guide enterprises in disclosing information properly,which provides an important reference for promoting the construction of China's ESG rating system.