Granular ESG Disclosure and Cost of Equity for 25 Energy Firms, 2021-2024

A validated balanced panel of 25 large-cap energy firms observed from 2021 to 2024 provides 100 firm-year observations. Author Azeez Busayo Kehinde constructed a granular ESG content-depth index from seven report features to examine its association with the cost of equity. The findings are specific to a North American and European panel of energy firms.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the link between ESG disclosure granularity and financial metrics based on the constructed content-depth index.
• Testing the dual-signal interpretation of ESG reporting as both an information and exposure signal based on grouped dimension analyses.
• Comparing verification-oriented versus alignment-oriented disclosure impacts on required returns based on the study's findings.
• Conducting sensitivity analyses on ESG-finance relationships using the described cluster-robust and fixed-effects models.

Strengths

• Data covers a specific four-year time range from 2021 to 2024.
• The panel is validated and balanced, comprising 25 firms and 100 firm-year observations.
• The granular ESG index is constructed from seven observable, defined features such as target ambition and assurance scope.

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The dataset's scale is limited to 25 large-cap energy firms, potentially affecting generalizability.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality and file formats require manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Azeez Busayo Kehinde

Collection Method

Constructed from observable features in corporate ESG reports, combined with descriptive statistics and regression analyses.

Time Range

2021 to 2024

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-21 23:05:28; freshness should be verified.

Geography

North American and European energy firms (center of gravity)