Abstract:*

European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) constitute the most comprehensive introduction of mandatory ESG reporting globally to date. We propose to study its firstorder effects on firms’ sustainability-related transparency, measured based on granular data points, rich narrative context, as well as firms’ exercise of adoption choices and discretion. For about 1,000 EU firms implementing ESRS for the first time in 2024, we will provide detailed descriptive evidence on ESRS-induced transparency  changes as well as difference-in-differences analyses bench-marking these changes against global and U.S. peers. By integrating multiple sources of field evidence, pre-committing to a research design, and offering several open-science resources, we aim to provide relevant and timely evidence that facilitates future sustainability reporting research.

*This work is co-authored with C.L. Donau (University of Cologne), I.E. Meringdal (Goethe University of Frankfurt), M.A. Müller (University of Cologne), T. Sellhorn (LMU Munich) & V. Wagner (LMU Munich)

General information:

Attendance to this seminar is possible by invitation only. Please send an e-mail to secbs-abs@uva.nl if your are interested in attending this seminar.