Misreporting of Mandatory ESG Disclosures: Evidence from Gender Pay Gap Information
Management Science · 2026 · McKenna Bailey、Stephen Glaeser、James D. Omartian、Aneesh Raghunandan
中文摘要
我们在英国政府要求报告性别雇佣比例与薪酬差距的背景下,考察环境、社会和治理(ESG)错报。许多雇主报告的一组披露数据合在一起在数学上是不可能成立的,凸显了错报的存在。此外,报告完全平衡性别统计数据的雇主数量不成比例地高,这与将错报视为一种ESG漂绿形式的解释相一致。涉及ESG争议且存在劳动违法行为的雇主更有可能错报,这表明伦理考量的缺失会助长错报。成为与其性别薪酬差距报告相关文章报道对象的雇主,以及接受四大(Big 4)审计师提供的ESG审计或财务审计的雇主,更不可能错报,这表明资本市场和媒体监督会抑制错报。总体而言,我们的结果表明,2017年有12%–15%的雇主存在错报,随后几年这一比例为8%–11%。我们的发现凸显了在ESG报告情境中实质性监督的重要性。本文由Ranjani Krishnan(会计)接受。补充材料:在线附录和数据文件可在 https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2024.05125 获取。
Abstract
We examine environmental, social, and governance (ESG) misreporting in the context of the UK government requirement to report gender employment ratios and pay gaps. Highlighting misreporting, many employers report a set of disclosures that are together mathematically impossible. Further, a disproportionate number of employers report perfectly balanced gender statistics, consistent with misreporting as a form of ESG-washing. Suggesting that a lack of ethical considerations encourages misreporting, employers involved in ESG controversies and who commit labor violations are more likely to misreport. Suggesting that capital market and media scrutiny discourage misreporting, employers that are the subject of an article about their gender pay gap reports and employers that receive an ESG audit or financial audit from a Big 4 auditor are less likely to misreport. Overall, our results suggest that 12%–15% of employers misreport in 2017 and 8%–11% misreport in subsequent years. Our findings highlight the importance of meaningful oversight within the context of ESG reporting. This paper was accepted by Ranjani Krishnan, accounting. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2024.05125 .