ESG disclosure and pay-performance sensitivity

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the moderating effect of environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure on the sensitivity of executive pay to market performance (pay-performance sensitivity – PPS) in Brazilian companies listed in the B3 IBrX-100 index. It also investigates the factors that influence PPS in order to seek explanations for the effect of ESG disclosure on PPS and to identify which theoretical perspective (agency theory, stakeholder theory, or the good governance view) can support the results found for Brazilian companies. It highlights the importance of monitoring ESG disclosure in the Brazilian capital market, as well as helping to understand whether or not ESG disclosure contributes to the extraction of shareholder income by executives, and provides insights for new research to be conducted considering ESG disclosure. The results have implications for understanding the principal-agent relationship and for understanding ESG disclosure in conflict mitigation when used by companies to improve PPS. A total of 81 companies were analyzed between 2016 and 2021. The method used for the main analyses was the ordinary least squares regression model (with robust standard errors), while quantile regression was used for the robustness analysis. The results indicate that ESG disclosure maximizes the sensitivity of executive pay to market performance. This study contributes to the literature by providing new evidence on PPS and identifying which theoretical perspective supports the results found in the Brazilian context. It also contributes to organizations by showing that ESG investments can mitigate agency problems and by revealing the importance of ESG implementation for firms, given the evidence of a positive impact on PPS. It contributes to society by encouraging organizations to invest in ESG issues.