In India, many PhD students have taken ESG as their phd topic but now Blommberg has stopped providing access to their data. What are the options available to these PhD students? How can they make changes in their PhD objectives? Any alternatives database available for the ESG scores?

 Here is the answer:

You're right that many PhD students in India and globally have chosen ESG as their research topic, and Bloomberg’s restricted access to ESG data creates a major hurdle. Here’s what they can do:

Alternative Databases for ESG Scores:

  1. Refinitiv Eikon (Thomson Reuters) – Provides ESG scores for thousands of companies worldwide. Some universities have subscriptions.
  2. MSCI ESG Ratings – Focuses on risk assessment and sustainability performance of firms.
  3. S&P Global ESG Scores – Includes environmental, social, and governance performance metrics.
  4. Sustainalytics (Morningstar) – Offers ESG risk ratings and reports.
  5. World Bank ESG Data – Free and useful for country-level ESG analysis.
  6. Arabesque S-Ray – AI-driven ESG analytics platform.
  7. FactSet ESG Data – Provides ESG metrics for global firms.
  8. CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) – Contains self-reported ESG data from firms.

Many of these databases require institutional subscriptions, so students should check with their universities or apply for academic access where possible.

How to Modify PhD Objectives?

If Bloomberg data was central to their research, students can pivot their objectives in the following ways:

1. Use Alternative ESG Datasets

  • Instead of Bloomberg, use Refinitiv, MSCI, or others.
  • Compare different ESG rating methodologies.
  • If university access is limited, consider public datasets like CDP, World Bank ESG indicators, or Sustainalytics’ publicly available reports.

2. Focus on Industry-Specific ESG Analysis

  • Instead of relying on a single comprehensive ESG score, use sector-specific ESG indicators from company reports or industry regulators.
  • Example: NSE’s Business Responsibility & Sustainability Report (BRSR) for Indian firms.

3. Shift to Text-Based ESG Research

  • Use NLP and text analysis on company sustainability reports, annual reports, and corporate disclosures.
  • Tools like quanteda, stm (Structural Topic Modeling), and sentopics in R can extract ESG themes.
  • Focus on media sentiment analysis of ESG issues using news articles, Twitter, or LinkedIn posts.

4. Conduct Primary Research (Survey/Expert Opinions)

  • Shift to a survey-based approach using CEO/CFO perspectives on ESG adoption.
  • Use Delphi method or DEMATEL to study ESG impact.
  • Conduct interviews with sustainability professionals.

5. Use Financial Proxy Indicators for ESG

  • Use firm financials to proxy ESG performance (e.g., CSR spending, carbon emissions data, sustainability-linked bonds).
  • Study the effect of ESG-linked financial disclosures instead of scores.

6. Conduct a Meta-Analysis of ESG Literature

  • Instead of working with Bloomberg’s dataset, students can conduct a meta-analysis of ESG studies, examining how ESG performance affects financial outcomes.

Final Advice:

  • Check university library resources for alternative ESG data providers.
  • Explore open-access data sources like CDP and World Bank.
  • Use text mining and sentiment analysis as an alternative to numerical ESG scores.
  • Refocus research questions on ESG perceptions, disclosures, or policy impact rather than Bloomberg-reliant ESG scores.

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