We study how the allocation of federal contracts influences the sustainability of corporate policies. We find that a firm’s poor record of environmental and social (E&S) incidents is associated with losing government contracts and facing worse contract terms. ‘Punished’ contractors improve...

We provide the first, large sample evidence on firms’ voluntary, third-party verification of environmental and social metrics in ESG reports (“ESG assurance”) in the United States. Focusing on S&P 500 firms from 2010-2020, we document a striking increase in ESG assurance. Unlike financial...

We study private shareholder engagements with 2,465 publicly listed firms from 2007 to 2020 about environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. We examine to what extent private engagements address financially material ESG issues and contribute to firm performance. We find that around 75%...

Private investors are an increasingly important voice in sustainability challenges. We examine investors' attitudes and behavior towards sustainable investing through a survey of 5,030 Finnish private investors. We document that 60 percent of all respondents consider environmental, social, and...

Though gender equality has been at the centre of debate over the last decades, a number of benefits concerning the impact of female directors on corporate performance are still overlooked. Particularly, the link that seems to exist between female directors and sustainable finance has received...