ESG와 투자효율성에 대한 실증연구

This paper investigates the relationship between ESG and investment efficiency. In that there exist conflicting hypotheses regarding how ESG activities implying the distribution of corporate resources to environmental, social, and governance factors, affect investment efficiency, an empirical analysis is necessary. The paper employs the measures for investment inefficiency estimated both by Tobin's q and sales growth rate. Using the sample of firms listed on the Korea Exchange from 2011 to 2020, we report that there is no significant difference in investment inefficiency between firms with and without ESG ratings. However, the level of ESG ratings have a significant and negative effect on investment inefficiency. In addition, examining each ESG factor such as an environment, social or governance factor shows that only the social factor significantly reduces investment inefficiency, while environmental and governance factors had no significant effect. The results are consistent with Kim and Ahn (2021), who reported that price premiums exist only in social bonds in the domestic bond issuance market and do not exist significantly in green bonds and sustainable bonds. This study contributes to ESG literature in that it is the first study to analyze the effect of ESG on corporate investment decision-making. Also, this study has great academic and practical implications by examining the relationship between ESG and agency problems within companies in co porate investment decision-making.