This paper investigates the impact of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance on corporate dividend policy. We employ a panel data set comprised of 1094 non-financial listed firms in 21 European countries from 2002 to 2019. We show that companies with higher ESG performance are likely to pay higher dividends. Our results are robust to alternative variable definitions and specifications and address endogeneity concerns. We next investigate the possible transmission channels through which corporate ESG performance enhances dividend payouts. We present novel evidence that "earnings" and "risk" are the two possible channels through which ESG performance augments corporate dividends.

中文翻译：

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ESG 绩效和股息支付：渠道分析


本文研究了环境、社会和治理（ESG）绩效对公司股利政策的影响。我们采用了由 2002 年至 2019 年欧洲 21 个国家的 1094 家非金融上市公司组成的面板数据。我们发现，ESG 绩效较高的公司可能会支付更高的股息。我们的结果对于替代变量定义和规范是稳健的，并解决了内生性问题。接下来我们研究企业 ESG 绩效提高股息支付的可能传导渠道。我们提供了新颖的证据，表明“收益”和“风险”是 ESG 绩效增加企业股息的两个可能渠道。