When we examine all firms in the sample we find that short-term debt is positively associated with earnings management consistent with some prior studies and the debt hypothesis. However, when we focus on high creditworthy (investment grade) firms we find a negative relation between short-term...

This paper extends the literature on the determinants of environment, social and governance (ESG) dimensions of sustainability investment by examining whether low growth firms with the agency problems of high free cash flows (FCF) (Jensen, 1986) have more incentives to invest in ESG...