“Noon Sunshine-Young Scholars Seminar” is a regular academic exchange platform held by School of Finance. It aims to offer valuable occasions of communications among scholars in our college, between teachers and students, the domestic and the oversea. In this semester, we keep our original intention, set off for a new voyage. We will devote ourselves to fostering the academic atmosphere in the college, and promoting the academic level for both teachers and students.

The sixth session of “Noon Sunshine-Young Scholars Seminar” for the Autumn Semester in 2023 is arranged as follows:

Lecture topic

Corporate ESG Profiles and Consumption  

Keynote Speaker: He Jia

Commentator: Tian Da

Date

Thursday, November 2nd, 2023

Time

12:00-13:00

Lecture Venue  

Room 116, School of Finance

Abstract

Using transaction-level credit card data from a leading Chinese commercial bank, we find that consumers increase their consumption by 4.9 % when the firm's environmental, social, and governance (ESG) rating increases by one unit. The response is more pronounced among female, unmarried, younger, and more educated consumers, and for non-essential items. The consumers’ attention plays a significant role in the relationship between firms’ ESG profiles and consumption. As a means of transmission, consumption further exploit the positive ESG–firm value relationship. To address endogeneity concerns, we perform two difference-in-differences analyses. Overall, our study provides insight into the impact of ESG performance on credit card spending.