SDGs and ESG disclosure regulation: is there an impact? Evidence from Top-50 world economies

  • Received April 7, 2020;
    Accepted June 9, 2020;
    Published June 17, 2020
  • Author(s)
  • DOI
    http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.18(2).2020.20
  • Article Info
    Volume 18 2020, Issue #2, pp. 231-245
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

This paper explores the influence of the ESG disclosure regulation (government corporate ESG disclosure and non-government corporate ESG disclosure) on the ranking in 50 largest economies. Applying various statistical methods and techniques, including both parametrical (Student’s t-test, ANOVA analysis) and non-parametrical (Mann-Whitney U test) tests, simple average analysis, OLS with dummy variables method and multiple linear regression analysis, as well as correlation analysis and Granger causality test, several hypotheses are tested. The hypotheses stipulate whether or not ESG disclosure regulation differs in developed and emerging countries and whether or not ESG disclosure regulation influences the country’s SDGI ranking, as well as the ranking of the country among 50 largest economies. According to the results, the differences in ESG disclosure regulation are statistically significant in developed and emerging countries. The level of ESG disclosure compliance is higher in developed countries. ESG disclosure regulation influences the position of the country in SDGI and 50 largest economies rankings. The more country complies with ESG disclosure criteria, the better position in rankings is. Incorporation of ESG criteria is an important evolutionary step in economic development of the country. It allows increasing position of the country in 50 largest economies and SDGI ranking. Thus, ESG disclosure regulation is vital for the development of the country in the modern world.

Acknowledgment
Comments from the Editor and anonymous referees have been gratefully acknowledged. Alex Plastun gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (0117U003936). Inna Makarenko gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (0117U003933).

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    • Figure B1. SDGI rank (2016)
    • Figure B2. SDGI score (2016)
    • Figure B3. Government corporate ESG disclosure
    • Figure B4. Non-government corporate ESG disclosure
    • Table 1. Relevant SDGs by type of entities capitals
    • Table 2. Countries with the biggest progress in achieving SDGs and their share of ESG disclosure in annual company reports in 2016–2017
    • Table 3. Overview of the empirical results for H1
    • Table 4. Overview of the Granger causality test results
    • Table 5. Multiple regression analysis: SDGI score (Y) and ESG disclosure regulation (X)
    • Table 6. Multiple regression analysis: SDGI score (Y) and non-government corporate ESG disclosure regulation (X)
    • Table 7. Multiple regression analysis: ranking in 50 largest economies (Y) and SDGI ranking and ESG disclosure regulation (X)
    • Table 8. Multiple regression analysis: ranking in 50 largest economies (Y) and ESG disclosure regulation (X)
    • Table A1. Initial data set
    • Table C1. T-test of the differences between developed countries and emerging countries
    • Table C2. ANOVA test of the differences between developed countries and emerging countries
    • Table C3. Mann-Whitney U test of the differences between developed countries and emerging countries
    • Table C4. OLS with dummy variables of the differences between developed countries and emerging countries
    • Table D1. Correlation analysis of ESG disclosure regulation and rankings: case of all data sets
    • Table D2. Correlation analysis of ESG disclosure regulation and rankings: case of developed countries
    • Table D3. Correlation analysis of ESG disclosure regulation and rankings: case of developing and emerging countries
    • Table E1. Ranking in 50 largest economies (X) and SDGI rank 2016 (Y)
    • Table E2. Ranking in 50 largest economies (X) and SDGI score 2016 (Y)
    • Table E3. Ranking in 50 largest economies (X) and government corporate ESG disclosure (Y)
    • Table E4. Ranking in 50 largest economies (X) and non-government corporate ESG disclosure (Y)
    • Table E5. SDGI rank 2016 (X) and government corporate ESG disclosure (Y)
    • Table E6. SDGI rank 2016 (X) and non-government corporate ESG disclosure (Y)
    • Table E7. SDGI score 2016 (X) and government corporate ESG disclosure (Y)
    • Table E8. SDGI score 2016 (X) and non-government corporate ESG disclosure (Y)
    • Table E9. Government corporate ESG disclosure (X) and non-government corporate ESG disclosure (Y)
    • Conceptualization
      Alex Plastun, Lyudmila Khomutenko
    • Funding acquisition
      Alex Plastun
    • Methodology
      Alex Plastun, Inna Makarenko
    • Software
      Alex Plastun
    • Validation
      Alex Plastun, Lyudmila Khomutenko, Pavlo Shcherbakov
    • Writing – original draft
      Alex Plastun, Lyudmila Khomutenko, Oksana Osetrova, Pavlo Shcherbakov
    • Investigation
      Inna Makarenko
    • Project administration
      Inna Makarenko
    • Supervision
      Inna Makarenko
    • Writing – review & editing
      Inna Makarenko
    • Data curation
      Lyudmila Khomutenko, Oksana Osetrova
    • Resources
      Lyudmila Khomutenko, Pavlo Shcherbakov
    • Visualization
      Lyudmila Khomutenko, Oksana Osetrova
    • Formal Analysis
      Oksana Osetrova, Pavlo Shcherbakov