We quantify the financial performance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) portfolios in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, based on data from six major ESG rating agencies. We document statistically significant excess returns in ESG portfolios from 2014 to 2020 in the U.S. and Japan. We...

We study the role of private equity firms in cross-border mergers and acquisitions. We find that private equity-owned firms are more likely to become targets in crossborderM&A transactions. This effect is particularly strong in transactions where the target or its shareholders actively reach out...

According to our survey about climate risk perceptions, institutional investors believe climate risks have financial implications for their portfolio firms and that these risks, particularly regulatory risks, already have begun to materialize. Many of the investors, especially the long-term,...

We show that it is a signal of deal quality in cross-border M&A if acquirers have private equity firms as owners (‘PE backing'). As such, announcements of cross-border M&A deals by PE-backed acquirers are associated with positive stock price reactions, but only if targets are in poor...

We introduce a method that identifies firm-level climate change exposure from conversations in the earnings conference calls of more than 10,000 firms from 34 countries between 2002 and 2019. The method adapts a machine learning keyword discovery algorithm and captures exposures related to...

Given ambiguity concerning the effects of disclosure on firm value and markets, we examine the question of whether investors value carbon risk disclosure. Through a survey and empirical tests, we conclude that many institutional investors consider climate risk reporting to be as important as...