Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: This paper introduces a novel methodology for measuring and decomposing multidimensional inequality, enabling the breakdown of overall inequality into contributions from various dimensions. This approach provides valuable insights for sustainable business development, indicating economic sectors in which Environmental, Social, or Governance (ESG) practices are more unequal and, thus, require policy intervention. We also shed further light on the relationship between company size and sustainability, showing that the most concentrated sectors are also the most unequal in terms of ESG factors. We exemplify our proposal on a sample of over 1,000 small and medium-sized enterprises, across various sectors in Italy. The findings reveal significant disparities in ESG practices, with notable sectoral differences. The Financial sector has the highest inequality in ESG scores, particularly in environmental and social dimensions, whereas the Manufacturing sector shows more uniform ESG performance.
Source: Mathematics
DOI: 10.3390/math12223633
Authors: Daniel Felix Ahelegbey, Paolo Giudici
Institutions: University of Essex, University of Pavia
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,955
OpenAlex ID: W4404592412