## Paper 9: ESG, ESG Disagreement and the Short-Term Debt for Long-Term Investment: Evidence from China
**Authors:** Tao, Zhang
**Year:** 2023
**Venue:** SSRN
**DOI:** 10.2139/ssrn.4649063

### Research Question
How does ESG performance and the disagreement among ESG raters affect a firm's maturity mismatch (using short-term debt to finance long-term investments)?

### Methodology
- **Design:** Empirical Corporate Finance.
- **Data:** Chinese corporate debt data and ESG rating dispersion metrics.

### Key Findings
1. **[VERIFY] Risk Mitigation:** High ESG performance likely reduces the cost of long-term debt, reducing the need for aggressive maturity mismatching.
2. **[VERIFY] Uncertainty Cost:** High ESG *disagreement* acts as an information risk, forcing companies to rely more on short-term financing because lenders are unwilling to commit capital long-term to firms with uncertain sustainability profiles.

### Implications
Connects ESG ratings directly to corporate capital structure and liquidity risk.

### Relevance to Your Research
**Score:** ⭐⭐⭐ (3/5)
**Why:** Links the asset pricing side (Paper 10) to the corporate finance side.

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