Dhruv Baswal, CFA

I am a PhD Candidate at the Smith School of Business, Queen's University, doing research at the intersection of sustainability and finance.

My dissertation research focuses on sustainable finance. The first paper, “ESG Messaging on Social Media and Cost of Capital: A Canadian Perspective”, examines whether environmental, social, and governance communications on social media impact firms' cost of equity. The paper was recently published in the Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences. My second paper, which also serves as my job market paper, addresses the persistent issue of divergence in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings, which undermines the credibility, compatibility, and practical utility of ESG evaluations. The paper introduces a unified ESG performance score (ZESG) that consolidates ratings from multiple leading providers - MSCI, S&P, Bloomberg, and Sustainalytics - to minimize noise and improve interpretability. My third paper investigates investors' preference for sustainable stocks amid the current political backlash against ESG. 

I am on the 2025-26 academic job market. 

Research Interest: Sustainability, Sustainability Disclosures, Corporate Finance, Investments, Labor and Finance, and Artificial Intelligence