ESG performance and audit committee expertise: advancing sustainable development goals in leading nations

Muskan Sahu, Anisha Mishra, Waleed M. Alahdal and Mina Sami

International Review of Economics & Finance, 2025, vol. 103, issue C

Abstract: Firms are pivotal in advancing the united nations sustainable development goals (SDGs), yet the mechanisms through which they contribute remain underexplored. While existing literature highlights the positive impact of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance on sustainability outcome; however, the role of corporate governance, particulalry audit committee expertise in strengthening this link is less understood. This study examines how ESG performance impacts SDGs at the firm level and whether ACE moderates this relationship, using panel data from 6073 firms across 34 OECD countries between 2017 and 2022. Employing fixed effects regression alongside robustness checks—including Driscoll-Kraay standard errors, heterogeneity analysis, channel analysis and two-stage least square— the results reveal that higher ESG performance significantly improves the SDGs outcomes. Moreover, the presence of ACE strengthens this relationship by enhancing transparency, reducing information asymmetry, and improving non-financial oversight. These findings highlight the importance of effective corporate governance in amplifying sustainability performance. The study offers practical implications for policymakers, corporate boards, and investors seeking to align governance structures with global sustainability goals.

Keywords: ESG performance; Sustainable development goals; OECD countries; Stakeholder theory; Agency theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056025006082
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reveco:v:103:y:2025:i:c:s1059056025006082

DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2025.104445

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Economics & Finance is currently edited by H. Beladi and C. Chen

More articles in International Review of Economics & Finance from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().