Anmerkungen:
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments November 30, 2021 erstellt
Beschreibung:
Investors are increasingly demonstrating a preference for superior ESG performance among their portfolio firms. Concurrently, the use of ESG-related contracting metrics in executive compensation contracts has increased. We investigate these two related issues in the context of the adoption of Say-on-Pay (SOP) voting laws, which provide investors a direct voice about compensation and an additional avenue to express their preferences. Exploiting the staggered adoption of SOP laws around the world, we find that the use of ESG metrics in compensation contracts and ESG performance increase after SOP adoption. Notably, the improvements in ESG performance are concentrated in countries with greater increases in ESG contracting, suggesting that ESG contracting serves as a pathway to facilitate improvement in ESG performance. Additionally, improvements are concentrated among firms with sophisticated owners, in stakeholder countries, and those with CSR committees. Lastly, we show that the improvement in ESG performance contributes to the positive effect of SOP laws on shareholder value