Learning ESG from stock prices: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China
Zeyuan Huang
The School of Management, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Yi Si
The School of Management, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Correspondence
Yi Si, No. 28 Xianning West Road, Xi'an, China.
Email: [email protected]
Chongwu Xia, 463 Clementi Road, Singapore.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorGaoliang Tian
The School of Management, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Chongwu Xia
School of Business, Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore, Singapore
Correspondence
Yi Si, No. 28 Xianning West Road, Xi'an, China.
Email: [email protected]
Chongwu Xia, 463 Clementi Road, Singapore.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorLei Zhang
College of Business, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Search for more papers by this authorZeyuan Huang
The School of Management, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Yi Si
The School of Management, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Correspondence
Yi Si, No. 28 Xianning West Road, Xi'an, China.
Email: [email protected]
Chongwu Xia, 463 Clementi Road, Singapore.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorGaoliang Tian
The School of Management, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Chongwu Xia
School of Business, Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore, Singapore
Correspondence
Yi Si, No. 28 Xianning West Road, Xi'an, China.
Email: [email protected]
Chongwu Xia, 463 Clementi Road, Singapore.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorLei Zhang
College of Business, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Search for more papers by this authorAuthors are listed alphabetically by the first letter of their last names.
All the authors have contributed equally to this paper.
Abstract
This study examines the impact of stock market liberalisation on managerial environmental, social and governance (ESG) learning from stock prices. Using a quasi-natural experiment, specifically the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect (SHHKC) and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect (SZHKC), we find that stock market liberalisation enhances firms' ESG expenditure sensitivity to stock prices, implying that managers extract greater amounts of ESG information from stock prices. Additionally, the mechanism test shows that liberalisation influences managerial learning by enabling stock prices to incorporate foreign investors' private ESG information at both aggregated and granular levels. Moreover, we demonstrate the specific ESG information that managers acquire from stock prices. We also find that the learning effects are stronger for firms in polluting industries, without ESG-proficient managers, and without access to alternative learning channels, lending further support to managerial ESG learning from stock prices. Finally, we demonstrate that the increase in ESG expenditure leads to subsequent ESG performance improvement. Our findings provide the managerial implication that managers under transformation pressure may seek information from ESG-related stock price reactions.
Open Research
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
The data source is publicly available. The data is available upon request.
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