There’s bad news for supporters of companies who score highly on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors. Academics claim that lofty ESG ratings failed to “immunise” the stock prices of US companies when markets plunged during the Covid-19 crisis in the first quarter of 2020. And things got worse for companies proud of their ESG accolades. While there was “insignificant” insulation from market turbulence in the first three months of the year—the height of the crisis—researchers say ESG had a notable “negative” effect during the recovery period in the quarter that followed. Writing in a paper published this week—ESG Didn’t Immunize Stocks Against the Covid-19 Market Crash—academics from the Netherland