Do more sustainable companies perform better during the corona crisis?

This project aims to offer a global perspective on this issue by gathering and analyzing data for a large number of companies around the world. We also intend to study which specific ESG aspects of a company are related to its stock market performance during the crisis. Furthermore, we will also investigate their stock market performance before the crisis. After all, if more sustainable companies would indeed offer a hedge to investors by performing less poorly during crisis, in rational markets investors would be willing to pay an insurance premium for such a hedge, implying that average stock returns of more sustainable companies may be lower outside of crisis periods.

Read the paper here.