Delivering green economy in Asia: The role of fiscal instruments

Asia’s ongoing rapid economic growth is successfully lifting millions of poor out of the vicious cycle of poverty, but that performance comes at a price. The unprecedented growth we witness today is also rapidly driving resource consumption to unsustainable levels. Local production and consumption-led growth is causing a considerable increase in external costs, such as deforestation, and knock-on effects, such as increased emissions including greenhouse gas (GHG); depletion of non-renewable resources; pollution of rivers; desertification; flooding; and long term climate change. Currently, the region accounts for about 40% of GHG emissions, which is expected to rise to almost 50% by 2030 if the business-as-usual trajectory projected for the region is not altered. Countries in the region are taking action when it comes to the transition to a green economy. When compared to other regions, Asia has the highest rate of policy innovations that can help in the transition to a green economy. Even though fiscal instruments in-use are to some extent already altering aggregate demand of resources and economic activities, resource allocation, and distributive capacity of the economy, instrument such as “carbon tax” that has the real potential to contain rising emissions and save economies from getting locked into carbon-intensive pathways are yet to be adopted widely. Tax on natural resources extraction is yet to be implemented in wider scale despite of rampant destruction of natural resources and environments and increase in associated GHG emissions. Sporadic adoption of fiscal instruments is not going to be enough, if Asia as a region, is to transition to a green economy. In addition, there are substantial implementation barriers that need to be eased for wide-scale adoption and diffusion of green fiscal instruments.     

The effects of board characteristics and sustainable compensation policy on carbon performance of UK firms

This study examines the effects of board characteristics and sustainable compensation policy on carbon reduction initiatives and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of a firm. We use firm fixed effect model to analyse data from 256 non-financial UK firms covering a period of 13 years (2002–2014). Our estimation results suggest that board independence and board gender diversity have positive associations with carbon reduction initiatives. In addition, environment-social-governance based compensation policy is found to be positively associated with carbon reduction initiatives. However, we do not find any relationship between corporate governance variables and GHG emissions of a firm. Overall, our evidence suggests that corporate boards and executive management tend to focus on a firm's process-oriented carbon performance, without improving actual carbon performance in the form of reduced GHG emissions. The findings have important implications for practitioners and policymakers with respect to the effectiveness of internal corporate governance mechanisms in addressing climate change risks, and possible linkage between corporate governance reform and carbon related policies.     

Climate Change and Asset Prices: Are Corporate Carbon Disclosure and Performance Priced Appropriately?

This paper empirically assesses the relevance of information on corporate climate change disclosure and performance to asset prices, and discusses whether this information is priced appropriately. Findings indicate that corporate disclosures of quantitative greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and, to a lesser extent, carbon performance are value relevant. We use hand‐collected information on quantitative GHG emissions for 433 European companies and build portfolios based on GHG disclosure and performance. We regress portfolios on a standard four factor model extended for industry effects over the years 2005 to 2009. Results show that investors achieved abnormal risk‐adjusted returns of up to 13.05% annually by exploiting inefficiently priced positive effects of (complete) GHG emissions disclosure and good corporate climate change performance in terms of GHG efficiency. Results imply that, firstly, information costs involved in carbon disclosure and management do not present a burden on corporate financial resources. Secondly, investors should not neglect carbon disclosure and performance when making investment decisions. Thirdly, during the period analysed, financial markets were inefficient in pricing publicly available information on carbon disclosure and performance. Mandatory and standardised information on carbon performance would consequently not only increase market efficiency but result in better allocation of capital within the real economy.     

Do green financial policies offset the climate transition risk penalty imposed on long-term sovereign bond yields?

Asset valuations in high-carbon sectors face significant corrections due to climate risks. This paper specifically analyses whether markets impose a penalty on long-term sovereign bonds issued by countries facing higher climate-related transition risk while rewarding those that have implemented green financial policies to mitigate these risks. We find that higher carbon dioxide emissions and a lower sustainable development score (both proxies for transition risks) lead to an increase in long-term sovereign bond yields. However, the presence of green financial policies appears to offset this climate transition risk premium.     

Halo effect or fallen angel effect? Firm value consequences of greenhouse gas emissions and reputation for corporate social responsibility

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are perceived to have negative consequences for society at large by contributing to potential climate change and represent a potential cash drain from firms from exposure to future regulatory, abatement, and compliance costs. Beginning in 2010, US companies are required to report their GHG emissions to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). We utilize these data for 2010–2014 to examine whether the possible adverse firm value impact of these GHG emissions is alleviated or exacerbated by the firm’s reputation for corporate social responsibility. Our findings suggest that there is no halo effect, i.e., a firm’s reputation for social responsibility (as reflected in its CSR score) does not protect the firm from the adverse firm value effects of GHG emissions. Rather, our findings suggest a fallen angel effect, i.e., for any given level of GHG emissions, the higher the firm’s CSR score, the greater the adverse impact on firm value. In other words, the decline in firm value due to the adverse impact of GHG emissions is compounded by the hit to the firm’s reputation for corporate social performance. Our paper contributes to the sparse prior US literature on the firm value effects of GHG emissions. Further, by providing scholarly evidence on the existence of a fallen angel effect, our findings suggest that boards and managers of firms that provide voluntary CSR disclosures cannot afford to be complacent about their GHG emissions.     

Greenhouse Gas Disclosure and Emissions Benchmarking

I examine the effects of the U.S. Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Reporting Program, which requires thousands of industrial facilities to measure and report their GHG emissions. I show that facilities reduce their GHG emissions by 7.9% following the disclosure of emissions data. The evidence indicates that benchmarking—whereby facilities use the disclosures of their peers to assess their own relative GHG performance—spurs emission reductions. Firms' concerns about future legislation appear to motivate this behavior and measurement alone (without disclosure) seems not to reduce emissions. My study highlights how mandatory GHG disclosure can create real effects for peers.     

银行信贷的行业产出与溢出效应

本文通过构建反映实体经济各行业之间内在联系的全局向量自回归模型,实证检验了我国商业银行信贷资金投放的行业产出效应和溢出效应。结果表明,各行业产出对信贷资金冲击的反应存在着明显的差异。在银行信贷投放趋缓的背景下,监管部门应采取相应的政策和措施,在保证信贷资金向制造业、建筑业和交通运输等行业投放的同时,引导信贷资金向第一产业和第三产业中的各行业投放,以促进国民经济结构的优化调整。     

Financial market development: A potentiating policy choice for the green transition in G7 economies

Despite the overwhelming literature claiming the environmental benefits of the transition towards a green economy, the evidence favoring these broad claims is still obscure and fuzzy. The present study makes two significant contributions to this important yet unsettled issue. First, we segregate the overall green transition in G7 economies into three different manifestations i.e., Green Energy, Green Industry, and Green Trade, to evaluate their idiosyncratic effects on the environment. Second, we assess the moderating role of financial development in green transition and ultimately in achieving the COP-26 targets. Our findings indicate that the transition towards green energy and the green industrial sector improves environmental quality, and the benefits are more pronounced with a high degree of financial development. In contrast, the transition towards green trade does not help in improving environmental quality and may have some adverse effects; however, financial development could mitigate some of these undesirable effects and help combat carbon emissions. The study emphasizes that policymakers should view financial development as a crucial policy choice to achieve COP-26 targets owing to its benign environmental impact.     

Price discovery analysis of green equity indices using robust asymmetric vector autoregression

Covering the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (2008–2012), we perform a price discovery analysis to determine Granger causality relationships for a range of prominent green equity indices with the broader equity and commodity markets. Three pivotal contributions are made. Firstly, an expanded database is used that gives greater depth to the price discovery analysis relative to previous literature. Prominent global, regional and sectoral green equity indices are considered, as well as a broader set of commodities including crude oil, natural gas and emissions. The inclusion of natural gas recognises its role as the transition fossil fuel to a low carbon economy. In addition to the main European Union Allowance traded under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, Certified Emissions Reduction (CER) prices are also included in the emissions database to capture activities under the global Clean Development Mechanism. Secondly, a problem with conventional symmetric vector autoregression is that its implementation commonly leads to large occurrences of insignificant parameters. Therefore, as a first layer of robustness, we utilise an asymmetric vector autoregression model to perform the Granger causality testing, which addresses this limitation by means of allowing different lag specifications among the system variables. Thirdly, explicit recognition is made in our study of the multiple comparisons bias inherent in our high-dimensional testing framework, which is the non-negligible likelihood of identifying statistically significant results by pure chance alone. As a second layer of robustness, we utilise a generalised Holm correction method to control this source of bias. At conventional statistical significance levels, we find that the FTSE 100 and FTSE Global Small Cap equity indices have a causal effect on all of the green equity indices, with limited evidence of causality in the opposite direction. Within the green equity markets, we find evidence that the chosen sectoral index has a Granger causal effect on one of the two global indices considered and also the regional index. This price transmission provides modest evidence that the global green economy is becoming ever more integrated. NBP gas is shown to have a causal effect on all of the green equity indices, whereas we find no such evidence for Brent oil. The former observation may reflect the increasing role of gas as the transition fuel to a low carbon economy, playing a key role in decisions on power generation mix and associated capital investment. Finally, we find no evidence that EUA or CER prices have a causal effect on green stocks, consistent with previous findings and likely reflecting the excessively low prices being commanded for compliance permits in the European emissions markets.     

Fund portfolio networks: A climate risk perspective

Within Europe, investment funds are more exposed to climate-sensitive economic sectors than banks, insurers, and pension funds. However, few climate-related financial risk assessments of the fund sector have been conducted. We use 8 trillion EUR of fund portfolio holdings to help fill this gap, using the network of portfolio overlaps. Funds with more polluting portfolios (brown funds) invest across more firms than funds with cleaner portfolios (green funds). This apparent diversification hides a concentration risk: brown funds are more closely connected with each other (have more similar portfolios) than green funds, which tend to herd less (have less similar portfolios with each other). This suggests that, in the event of a widespread climate-related financial shock, brown funds will face greater stress levels than green funds. A climate risk scenario exercise confirms this: among total system losses of 443 billion EUR, brown funds' losses are typically between two and three times higher than green funds' losses. Brown funds also have more systemic impact: because they play a more central role in the investment fund network, brown funds contribute twice as much towards system-wide losses as green funds. These findings suggest that, despite the growing attention paid to sustainable investing, systemic vulnerabilities remain and many funds' portfolio diversification approaches do not yet adequately incorporate climate risk.     

The curious case of Canadian corporate emissions valuation

This study examines the relevance to investors of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of publicly-traded Canadian firms over 2006–2018. Based on two independent datasets, we document that firm value varies positively in the level of emissions. This result suggests that the Canadian setting differs from those studied previously, notably because of low climate litigation risk and national and subnational expenditure policies to offset climate impacts on the economy. While national and subnational expenditures to mitigate emissions affect firms' on-balance-sheet costs and profits, investors price the future payoffs to these expenditures into firm value. Supporting this view, we find that the positive relation between emissions and firm value in Canada is amplified for high GHG-intensity firms (mainly energy firms in Alberta), whose future payoffs to environmental policies and spending exceed those of low GHG-intensity firms. Our results are consistent with investors’ recognition of the benefits to firm value of national and subnational policies to decarbonize the Canadian economy.     

Green property finance and CO2 emissions in the building industry

Contributing about 40% of the world's annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the building industry is tasked with reducing its energy consumption and its carbon footprint in accordance with the Paris Agreement. This study investigates the relationship between green property finance and the building industry's CO₂ emissions across 98 high-income and developing economies for the period 2012–2018. Our results show that although green property finance expansions are significantly and negatively related to the industry's CO₂ emissions in the full sample, this result is more evident for developing nations. This is a significant outcome for these countries since many of them are experiencing rapid but unchecked population growth and strong oil consumption. Policies to maintain this development during the COVID-19 pandemic are crucial because this crisis has curtailed the availability of green finance facilities, which has either slowed down or reversed any progress made.     

Women on boards and greenhouse gas emission disclosures

We apply institutional and board capital theory to examine whether women on boards are associated with disclosure and quality of corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related reporting. We examine the research problem in Australia in a period when no requirements existed for listed companies to appoint female directors or to report GHG emissions. This environment allows us to examine the association between women on boards and GHG emissions related disclosure in annual and sustainability reports in a voluntary setting. We find that companies with multiple female directors make GHG emissions related disclosures that are of higher quality.     

Inter-and intra-organizational stakeholder arrangements in carbon management accounting

This research investigates the role of inter-organizational arrangements and intra-organizational activities as sub-parts of carbon management accounting to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We apply the concept of stakeholder engagement, normally utilized in sustainability reporting, to carbon management accounting and performance. We also examine if carbon management projects that encompass many functional areas aid in GHG emissions performance. Using a sample of firms headquartered in the United States with data available from the CDP, we apply the three-stage least squares (3SLS) method to test for the endogeneity of GHG emissions reporting and performance. We find that both inter-organizational and intra-organizational arrangements improve GHG emissions performance through carbon management processes and procedures. Our research contributes to the literature by providing insight into how companies work externally with their stakeholders and internally with multiple functional areas to implement carbon management projects that reduce GHG emissions.     

Climate change reporting and multinational companies: Insights from institutional theory and international business

Multinational companies (MNCs) have an important impact on climate change, but knowledge on the greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting practices of MNCs is limited. A theoretical framework is developed to provide an explanation of GHG emissions reporting by MNCs. The framework combines institutional theory with the notion of MNC typology from International Business and explains how institutional pressure acting on each typology of MNC influences standardization of reporting practices and GHG emissions data quality. Propositions are developed and empirically investigated using a case study. Global MNCs are predicted to have better quality GHG emissions reporting compared to multi-domestic or transnational MNCs.     

MUTUAL FUND PERFORMANCE PERSISTENCE AND COMPETITION: A CROSS‐SECTOR ANALYSIS

Existing work on mutual fund performance persistence obtains diverse results, depending on the group of funds studied. We examine whether performance persistence within a peer group of competing mutual funds depends on the group's composition. The U.K. mutual fund industry is ideal for such an examination because funds compete within strictly defined sectors. We consider several attributes related to the intensity of competition within a sector and use them to explain sector‐level persistence. We find robust evidence that persistence is higher in sectors where concentration of assets under management is higher.     

Governance and Climate Change: A Success Story in Mobilizing Investor Support for Corporate Responses to Climate Change

Until fairly recently, the main approach to getting business to respond to climate change has been top‐down efforts to regulate emissions and enact various forms of “carbon pricing.” The aim of such efforts has been to make businesses “internalize” the costs associated with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Governments are expected to set the environmental protection rules for companies in their respective countries, and markets are expected to adjust to the new regulations and carbon prices. But this classical approach to economic policy does not work when applied to a global “public goods” challenge like trying to limit the extent and effects of climate change. Instead of a top‐down approach, in which economic actors are forced to respond to regulations imposed on them, the Paris climate agreement of 2015 was reached using a bottom‐up approach centered on the concept of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs)—along with a process that ended up encouraging the participation of all economic actors, not just governments. The authors provide an account of how the Paris agreement was reached, and why the “Portfolio Decarbonization Coalition” under the auspices of the United Nations is the most important of several private‐sector initiatives that are changing the way corporations operate. Thanks in large part to the PDC, investors can now undertake meaningful corporate governance action on climate change. With GHG emissions from a particular companies’ operations now much easier to measure, objective performance metrics on GHG emissions can now be set by boards and verified by shareholders. And current decarbonized indexes can be used as performance benchmarks for asset managers’ compensation, which can be tied to return outperformance relative to a “decarbonized” index.     

基于DSGE模型的绿色信贷激励政策研究

在绿色金融政策实践与有关学术理论快速发展的背景下,本文以绿色信贷的激励政策为切入点,提供一种分析绿色金融政策的理论模型分析框架,并基于模型开展量化的政策效果分析。本文在真实商业周期框架的基础上引入银行部门,通过拆分厂商部门为“绿色”与“其它”两部分,并设置中央银行与财政部门的相关政策,纳入了绿色信贷激励政策。研究发现,针对绿色信贷的贴息、定向降准、再贷款(调整再贷款利率与质押率)均是有效且合意的激励政策,一定强度的政策不仅能够提高绿色信贷量,在绿色意义上优化经济结构,而且对总产出、总就业不会造成显著的负面影响,从而带来“经济”与“环境”双赢的结果。     

房价调控、地方政府债务与宏观经济波动

在地方政府债务高企的背景下,房价调控能否使资本流向非房地产部门？房价调控如果触发地方政府债务违约,宏观政策应如何应对？本文基于中国宏观经济的特征事实,引入地方政府的土地财政行为,将房价变动与地方政府的偿债能力联系起来。研究表明,由于地方政府依赖土地出让和土地抵押贷款筹集收入,房价管控导致的地价下降会带来地方政府收入的下降,直接影响地方政府的偿债能力。如果地方政府债务不出现违约,那么房价管控带来的地价下降会降低地方政府从金融部门获得的抵押融资额,使非基建部门的融资成本下降,非基建部门投资和产出上升。而如果调控房价带来的地价下降导致地方政府出现债务违约,金融部门资产受损,使金融中介减少贷款和提高贷款成本,带来整个社会的信贷紧缩,经济中各个部门的产出大幅下降。进一步的政策分析表明,有必要在避免地方政府债务违约的同时,使用财政资金补充银行资本金等多种方式稳定金融中介的资产负债表,从而将房价调控对经济的负面影响程度降到最低。     

Greenness index: IPO performance and portfolio allocation

This study examines how the greenness of the firm affects the short- and long-term performance of IPOs. To measure the greenness of the firm, we develop the Greenness Index based on the emissions produced. We find that the greenness of the firms operating in services and financial sectors is higher than in other sectors. To examine the short- and long-run performance of IPOs, we classify our sample into high and low green firms. In the short-run, high green firms obtain a lower return than low green firms. However, high green firms perform better than low green firms in the long-run. This study also determines the factors that cause short- and long-run performance, and the results suggest that the firm’s greenness negatively influences initial returns and underperformance of IPOs. Finally, we develop a theoretical model in terms of the portfolio's allocation and assert that investors participate in high-green firms to optimize their portfolio.