If rating agencies add no new information to markets, their actions are not a public policy concern. But as rating changes may be anticipated, testing whether ratings add value is not straightforward. This paper argues that ratings and spreads are both noisy signals of fundamentals and suggest...

The information that ESG raters produce is valuable. Assessing ESG performance is conceptually challenging because we need to measure contextuality, additionality, and preferences. ESG raters, specialized ESG data providers, and aggregators can harness economies of scale. Regulators should...