---
title: "ESG ratings research: papers, trends and top journals"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “ESG ratings” appeared in 620 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in finance (429), economics (85) and management (46)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/esg-ratings
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/esg-ratings.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “ESG ratings” appeared in 620 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in finance (429), economics (85) and management (46). (as of 2026-11-04)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-04T00:03:46+09:00
window: 2026-10-06 to 2026-11-04
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “ESG ratings”

Research on “ESG ratings” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “ESG ratings” appeared in 620 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in finance (429), economics (85) and management (46).
- 160 of them were published in 2025, against 4 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Capital University of Economics and Business (17), Nanjing University of Finance and Economics (16) and Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (10).
- The journals publishing most of them were Finance research letters (113), International Review of Financial Analysis (51) and Research in International Business and Finance (36).
- The most-cited of them is “Responsible Investing: The ESG-Efficient Frontier” (Journal of Financial Economics, 2019), with 2,101 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 3 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 17 | 39 | 47 | 124 | 112 | 72 |
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 19 | 14 | 24 | 19 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 9 | 2 | 8 | 15 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 4 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 4 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| All categories | 4 | 3 | 8 | 13 | 32 | 51 | 81 | 151 | 160 | 117 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Finance research letters](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/finance-research-letters.md) | 113 |
| 2 | [International Review of Financial Analysis](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-financial-analysis.md) | 51 |
| 3 | [Research in International Business and Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/research-in-international-business-and-finance.md) | 36 |
| 4 | [International Review of Economics & Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-economics-finance.md) | 35 |
| 5 | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 19 |
| 6 | [Pacific-Basin Finance Journal](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/pacific-basin-finance-journal.md) | 16 |
| 7 | [Global Finance Journal](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/global-finance-journal.md) | 12 |
| 8 | [Borsa Istanbul Review](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/borsa-istanbul-review.md) | 12 |
| 9 | [Economic Modelling](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economic-modelling.md) | 11 |
| 10 | [Journal of Asset Management](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-asset-management.md) | 11 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Capital University of Economics and Business](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/capital-university-of-economics-and-business.md) | 17 |
| 2 | [Nanjing University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/nanjing-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 16 |
| 3 | [Zhongnan University of Economics and Law](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/zhongnan-university-of-economics-and-law.md) | 10 |
| 4 | [Peking University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/peking-university.md) | 9 |
| 5 | [Sichuan University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/sichuan-university.md) | 9 |
| 6 | [Southwestern University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/southwestern-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 9 |
| 7 | [Central University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/central-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 8 |
| 8 | [Hong Kong Polytechnic University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/hong-kong-polytechnic-university.md) | 8 |
| 9 | [Huazhong University of Science and Technology](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/huazhong-university-of-science-and-technology.md) | 8 |
| 10 | [Sun Yat-sen University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/sun-yat-sen-university.md) | 8 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 225 |
| 2 | Italy | 58 |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 49 |
| 4 | United States | 41 |
| 5 | Germany | 33 |
| 6 | France | 26 |
| 7 | Hong Kong | 21 |
| 8 | South Korea | 18 |
| 9 | Turkey | 17 |
| 10 | Taiwan | 17 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Chinese listed companies](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/chinese-listed-companies.md) | 76 |
| 2 | [corporate governance](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/corporate-governance.md) | 65 |
| 3 | [corporate sustainability](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/corporate-sustainability.md) | 51 |
| 4 | [ESG performance](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/esg-performance.md) | 48 |
| 5 | ESG disclosure | 44 |
| 6 | [financial constraints](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/financial-constraints.md) | 42 |
| 7 | ESG investing | 41 |
| 8 | [stock returns](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/stock-returns.md) | 41 |
| 9 | sustainable investment | 39 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,101 | 22.3 | [Responsible Investing: The ESG-Efficient Frontier](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2020.11.001) | [Journal of Financial Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-financial-economics.md) | 2019-01-01 | Lasse Heje Pedersen, Shaun Fitzgibbons, Łukasz Pomorski |
| 2 | 1,551 | 17.2 | [The Influence of Firm Size on the ESG Score: Corporate Sustainability Ratings Under Review](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04164-1) | [Journal of Business Ethics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-ethics.md) | 2019-04-27 | Samuel Drempetic, Christian Klein, Bernhard Zwergel |
| 3 | 1,353 | 22.0 | [Sustainable investing with ESG rating uncertainty](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2021.09.009) | [Journal of Financial Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-financial-economics.md) | 2021-09-17 | Doron Avramov, Si Cheng, Abraham Lioui et al. |
| 4 | 1,104 | 12.3 | [Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Scores and Financial Performance of Multilatinas: Moderating Effects of Geographic International Diversification and Financial Slack](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04177-w) | [Journal of Business Ethics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-ethics.md) | 2019-05-16 | Eduardo Alexander Duque Grisales, Javier Aguilera‐Caracuel |
| 5 | 1,002 | 19.3 | [ESG disclosure and financial performance: Moderating role of ESG investors](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.irfa.2022.102291) | [International Review of Financial Analysis](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-financial-analysis.md) | 2022-07-09 | Zhongfei Chen, Guanxia Xie |

## Research ideas that follow this keyword

- [Greenwashing as the gap between talk and emissions](https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/greenwashing-talk-versus-emissions.md)

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “ESG ratings”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/esg-ratings

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-esg-ratings,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “ESG ratings”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/esg-ratings}},
  urldate = {2026-11-04},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).