Project Investigator: David Chambers
As sustainable investing has become more important over the last decade, demand from investors and firms has stimulated the growth of ESG ratings. Recent studies of ESG ratings of listed firms confirm substantial disagreement across raters (Chatterji et al., 2016; Berg et al., 2022). Based on a new comprehensive data set, this study intends to examine the development of the beginnings of US corporate bond ratings in the 1920s and 1930s to document the extent of initial disagreement across rating agencies and how this evolved over time. Our aim is to draw conclusions of relevance to the future evolution of the ESG ratings market.