Using the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information for companies from the steel, oil, information technology, automobile, pharmaceutical, and e-commerce industries in India and China, the study tries to analyze whether ESG practices differ among these selected industries in these two countries. A regression analysis is then conducted to evaluate if the ESG score would significantly affect the financial performance of the companies. The firm-level data from the year 2015 to the year 2021 reveals that China has a higher ESG score and more consistent financial performance than India. In addition, the ESG score has a significant positive impact on the financial performance the companies in India and China.

Chapter 1 Introduction 8
1.1. Motivation and research purpose 8
1.2. Research framework 10

Chapter 2 Literature review 11
2.1. History and development of ESG 11
2.2. Calculation of ESG score 14
2.3. Application of ESG score 17

Chapter 3 ESG performance for industries in India and China 19
3.1. Stylized facts 19
3.2. ESG performance 31

Chapter 4 Empirical analysis 35
4.1 Data description 35
4.2. Quantitative discussion for industries in India and China 40
4.3. Regression analysis 43

Chapter 5 Conclusions 44
5.1. Conclusion and policy implications 44
5.2. Limitation and future research 45

References 47

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