Melbourne Accounting Research Seminar - Aaron Yoon

Melbourne Accounting Research Seminars
Melbourne Accounting Research Seminars

Assistant Professor Aaron Yoon from Northwestern University will present a MARS seminar.

Topic: Local vs Foreign ESG Raters: Evidence from China

Abstract: We compare local and foreign ESG raters’ predictive ability of future ESG news in China, which is one of the very few markets outside of the US with a significant local ESG rater presence. We find that the local rater has superior ability in predicting future ESG news than the foreign rater. The local rater better predicts social and governance issues related to corruption, employment conditions, and legal violations that likely need the local context to analyze and distill. We also find that the local rater’s superior performance is more salient among firms that rely on relationship-based transactions and political connections, and also those that provide ESG reports. Overall, the results suggest that the local rater use the local context and knowledge to uncover information and digest disclosure, which makes ESG ratings more relevant to future ESG incidents.

This seminar will be conducted remotely via Zoom. Register for this seminar

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