This paper offers the first systematic evidence on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures provided by a large global sample of private equity (PE) firms. Using historical websites from 2000 to 2022, we develop and validate a novel dictionary-based measure of voluntary PE firm ESG disclosures. Descriptive statistics reveal an increasing time trend in these disclosures, with social topics becoming as important as environmental topics recently. Multivariate analyses show that the demand for ESG information from fund investors is a significant determinant of PE firms’ ESG disclosures. Leveraging data on PE firms’ portfolio companies, we document that more PE firm ESG disclosures are associated with better ESG outcomes at the portfolio company level, suggesting that voluntary ESG disclosures align with real actions for the average PE firm.

中文翻译：

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私募股权行业的 ESG 披露


本报告提供了全球私募股权 （PE） 公司大量样本提供的关于环境、社会和治理 （ESG） 披露的首个系统证据。使用 2000 年至 2022 年的历史网站，我们开发并验证了一种基于字典的新型私募股权公司自愿 ESG 披露衡量标准。描述性统计数据揭示了这些披露的时间趋势，最近社会话题变得与环境话题一样重要。多变量分析表明，基金投资者对 ESG 信息的需求是私募股权公司 ESG 披露的重要决定因素。利用私募股权公司投资组合公司的数据，我们记录了更多的私募股权公司 ESG 披露与投资组合公司层面更好的 ESG 结果相关，这表明自愿 ESG 披露与普通私募股权公司的实际行动保持一致。