关键词: ESG, ESG分歧, 信息效应, 分析师

Abstract: Third-party institutions' ESG evaluations furnish stakeholders with vital insights into a company's sustainable development. However, the economic implications and mechanisms of divergent evaluations remain a subject of ongoing debate. Employing an information utilization framework, this study examines two opposing mechanisms based on uncertain and heterogeneous information from an analyst's perspective. The study analyzes the ratings data of seven different ESG rating agencies for Chinese A-share listed companies from 2017 to 2021, empirically testing these two mechanisms. The results show that ESG evaluation divergence actually reduces analysts' forecast errors, confirming the effectiveness of the heterogeneous information mechanism. This finding indicates that while ESG evaluation divergence may increase market uncertainty, the heterogeneous information it contains positively impacts analysts' predictions of company's future performance. Furthermore, the study delves into how ESG evaluation divergence reduces analysts' forecast errors. It reveals that the divergence effectively captures key information closely related to a company's earnings per share, significantly enhancing analysts' accuracy in forecasting a company's financial status and future performance. Additionally, the research finds that in companies with higher information asymmetry, particularly where information disclosure is insufficient or lacks transparency, ESG evaluation divergence provides analysts with more comprehensive and in-depth insights. The study also explores the relationship between ESG evaluation divergence and financial indicators (such as ROA and ROE), as well as stock returns, controlling for the average ESG score. It finds a positive correlation between ESG evaluation divergence and these financial indicators, confirming its informational effect. This suggests that ESG evaluation divergence not only provides multidimensional information but may also serve as a market indicator for predicting a company's financial and stock performance. In summary, this paper supplements existing ESG literature from the new perspective of evaluation divergence and elucidates the informational effects and intrinsic mechanisms of ESG evaluation divergence. These findings offer a fresh perspective on the role of analysts in ESG evaluations and provide theoretical and empirical support for improving the quality of ESG assessments. Practically, these insights are significant in assisting analysts and investors in more accurately and comprehensively assessing corporate ESG performance. Moreover, the results suggest that policymakers and rating agencies should focus on unifying and refining ESG evaluation standards to promote effective market operation and sustainable corporate development.

Key words: ESG, ESG Discrepancies, Informational Impact, Analysts