The quality of extra-financial information in question

Abstract

The quality of extra-financial information is an important determinant of the quality of asset allocation. This article illustrates the difficulty of defining the quality of information by comparing the two main sustainability accounting standards. It then explains why high-quality sustainability reports are hard to come by. An analysis of the main steps required to calculate ESG ratings illustrates the difficulties in synthesizing a company’s ESG performance, and the paper concludes with empirical studies showing that the quality of ESG ratings still needs to be improved.