Do ESOPs affect Firm Performance and ESG?
Honors Senior Thesis, 2023
I study the effects of Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) on firm performance and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) scores using multiple measures of ESOPs. I use Coarsened Exact Matching to match firms with ESOPs to similar firms without ESOPs. I find evidence of ESOPs having a positive effect on firm performance, particularly for Tobin’s Q, a market based measure of firm performance. I find evidence of a positive effect on ESG for large firms and for firms in the transportation and construction industries, but little evidence of a net effect for all types of firms.