스튜어드십 코드 채택이 ESG 등급에 미치는 영향: 국민연금 사례를 중심으로

The purpose of this study is to verify whether the adoption of the stewardship code of the National Pension Service in 2018 had a positive effect on the ESG improvement of investee companies. We also analyze the relationship between corporate ESG ratings and the NPS’s negative voting. Specifically, it analyzes whether ESG ratings are being used as indicators of negative voting, and also analyzes whether the exercise of negative voting rights by the National Pension Service has a substantial impact on the improvement of the ESG ratings of investee companies. As a result of the empirical analysis, after the National Pension Service adopted the stewardship code, the environment-related, social-related, and governance-related ratings of investee companies are all improved. In addition, we find that the exercise of its negative voting right has a substantial impact on the improvement of the social (S) and governance (G) ratings of the investee company. These results show that the adoption of the stewardship code by the National Pension Service has improved the ESG of investee companies, and that the exercise of shareholder rights such as negative voting is the motivation for ESG improvement.