Sustainability disclosure and capital markets: a review of the literature

This chapter reviews the literature on the economic consequences associated with sustainability disclosure, focusing on the relationship of such information with stock prices and the cost of capital. The analysis of papers published over the period 2000-2023 and retrieved from Scopus supports the general notion that sustainability disclosure is value relevant, albeit some studies document any or a negative reaction of investors to the release of sustainability information. The results of the examined studies must be interpreted considering factors such as the context investigated and the methodological choices, which could affect the findings. In particular, the issues related to sustainability disclosure measurement could hamper both the comparability and generalizability of findings. Based on this evidence, we suggest potential research avenues for future studies, emphasizing the need to compare the results obtained using different sustainability disclosure measures and extending the analyses to under-investigated settings.