On the ESG ratings and the value(s)-based system

There is a really nice paper by Eccles and Stroehle (2018) that outlines the different social origins of the data providers, and their objectives.

They differentiate ESG rating agencies into:

value-based vs. values-based.

The authors suggest to have a look at your data vendor’s mission or purpose statement to give you an indication of your data vendor’s conceptions of sustainability (i.e., how your data vendor perceives and contextualizes the purpose of ESG). 

Is it data to inform the world vs. data to transform the world?

You can download the paper at:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3212685

Author: Prof. Dr. Kornelia Fabisik

Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Bern // I do research in empirical corporate finance, corporate governance, ESG and sustainable finance. I am a recipient of the 2021 Lamfalussy Research Fellowship from the European Central Bank (ECB) as well as a Research Affiliate at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). I worked as an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management from August 2020 to July 2022 and in August 2022, I joined the University of Bern.