Rising from Pandemic. Do ESG Factors Matter for Resiliency in Financial Markets?

The Covid-19 pandemic has spurred investigations into evaluating the impact of market downturns on sustainable investments. Drawing inspiration from this stand of research, we investigate whether, during different phases of the pandemic, the trend toward ESG investing demonstrated resiliency. To this end, we focus on the Italian Stock market exchange by comparing the performance of two groups of companies: those included in the MIB ESG index and those forming a stratified control group. The application of a network correlation analysis revealed a significant resilience of the ESG assets that recovered more promptly than traditional assets in the post-lockdown phase