We examine the relationship between analysts' task-specific experience in the context of ESG information and the informativeness of their stock recommendation revisions. While sell-side analysts incorporate ESG information in their valuation process and research reports, previous studies have indicated that the increased availability of ESG information in the market poses challenges for analysts to issue incrementally informative reports. Building upon existing literature that highlights systematic differences in analysts' performance that is attributed to their experience, we introduce a measure of financial analysts' ESG experience. We document a positive association between our proxy of analyst ESG experience and market reactions to their recommendation revisions. Our findings also show that analysts' ESG experience contributes to the interpretation of information included in firm ESG reports. We further find support for a stronger association between the market reaction and our ESG-experience proxy when firms exhibit lower levels of ESG disclosure and when they face higher external scrutiny due to their exposure to ESG-related risks. Our results are robust when considering analysts' innate and forecasting ability and when additional specifications are applied.

中文翻译：

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分析师 ESG 经验重要吗？


我们研究了分析师在 ESG 信息背景下的特定任务经验与其股票推荐修订的信息量之间的关系。虽然卖方分析师将 ESG 信息纳入其估值流程和研究报告中，但之前的研究表明，市场上 ESG 信息可用性的增加给分析师发布增量信息报告带来了挑战。基于强调分析师业绩因经验而产生的系统性差异的现有文献，我们引入了金融分析师 ESG 经验的衡量标准。我们记录了我们的分析师 ESG 经验代理与市场对其建议修订的反应之间存在正相关关系。我们的研究结果还表明，分析师的 ESG 经验有助于解释公司 ESG 报告中包含的信息。我们进一步发现，当企业的 ESG 披露水平较低且由于面临 ESG 相关风险而面临更严格的外部审查时，市场反应与我们的 ESG 经验代理之间存在更紧密的关联。当考虑分析师的固有能力和预测能力以及应用额外的规范时，我们的结果是稳健的。