The effect of corporate environmental, social and governance disclosure on cash holdings: Life?cycle perspective

This paper examines the impact of corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure on cash holdings, specifically during various stages firm life cycle S&P 1500 indexed firms. Using a sample 9811 firm-year observations from 2006 to 2015, we document significantly negative relation between ESG holdings in introduction, growth shake-out/decline stages, those lower are associated with higher performance positive value cash. Our findings robust alternative econometric specifications, measures, additional control variables, propensity score matching use an instrumental variable approach. Overall, our study offers useful insights into global debate ESG.