Corporate debt and unconventional monetary policy: The risk-taking channel with bond and loan contracts

We investigate the effects of unconventional monetary policies on corporate debt through the risk-taking channel using corporate bond and syndicated loan contracts from 2000 to 2016 in Japan. In this period, the policy rate remained fixed near the zero bound. Using the daily changes in the yield curve on monetary policy meeting days, we identify one call rate shock and two unconventional monetary policy shocks that do not affect short-term rates. We find that QE shocks, which move all medium-to-long-term rates, increase the maturity of debt contracts, especially for syndicated loans. In addition, such QE shocks decrease the size of corporate bonds with short maturity. On the other hand, QQE shocks, which raise medium-term rates and lower long-term rates, decrease the size of loans and corporate bonds with longer maturity. These effects imply the existence of the risk-taking channel of unconventional monetary policy: it stimulates investment in longer-maturity assets and decreases investment in assets with lower yields. Our findings show that unconventional policies affect debt contracts even in an extremely low interest rate environment.     

Interactive effects of brand reputation and ESG on green bond issues: A sustainable development perspective

This paper shows that brand reputation alone may not be sufficient to help firms successfully issue green bonds and that they may need superior corporate social responsibility performance in the form of high ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) scores to unlock the full potential of their brand reputation. Using a sample of 338 international green bond issues across 108 unique firms, we found significant positive effects of ESG disclosure score and its interaction brand reputation on the issuance of green bonds while controlling for other variables, such as fixed effects of industry, region, and time. We also show that it is the S (Social) component of ESG and the interactions of its E (Environmental) and G (Governance) components with brand reputation which drive successful green bond issuance. Besides extending the current research on the impact of brand reputation and ESG on green bonds, these results also have important managerial implications for analysts, fund managers, and firms planning to raise green capital.     

Convertible bond issuance volume,capital structure,and firm value

We investigate whether convertible bond (CB) issuance volume that causes capital structure change would affect firm value. We focus on either the hand-collected data due to multiple CB issues or diverse CB issuance volume (CB-IV) measures, including CB-IV over debt, equity, and assets. We reveal that the firms with higher CB-IV would enhance firm value, somewhat different from previous findings that CB might not be a cheap financing instrument for raising funds. We infer that because increased CB-IV might not be easily permitted by Taiwan authorities, enterprises might endeavor to exploit profits by using the funds raised by CBs. We argue that, to our understanding, our explored issues are essential for enterprises because they link CB-IV and firm value through the capital structure channel. Given that these issues have rarely been a comprehensive focus, this study may contribute to the existing literature.     

The impact of green finance on the level of decarbonization of the economies: An analysis of the United States', China's,and Russia's current agenda

With growing global concern for mainstreaming of environmental protection measures, the promotion of climate change and sustainable development policies, the international community, represented by international organizations, research institutions, and world-wide businesses, has focused on green finance. Existing research on green finance in the context of environmental trends has been reviewed in terms of the products and determinants of green finance. This study aims to assess the impact of green finance on the decarbonization of economies in the context of a review of current and potential problems and prospects. Based on the examples of the People's Republic of China, the Russian Federation, and the United States of America, the study suggests that today green finance has not yet demonstrated a tangible effect in these countries. Based on the results of the study, it can be argued that in the three countries, the main tool of green finance in the field of decarbonization is green bonds; other types of green finance are used to a limited extent. The progress of the United States and China is not so obvious, but based on the overall involvement of relevant government agencies and businesses in the green bond market, it can be assumed that the results will be observed in the near future.     

Regulatory capital and asset risk transfer

We explore whether life insurers use a unique reinsurance arrangement to manage assets tied to their regulatory capital. Typical reinsurance allows insurers to reduce their regulatory capital by transferring liabilities (reserves), and the associated assets, to reinsurers. With modified coinsurance (ModCo), insurers maintain control of their liabilities and assets while transferring regulatory capital requirements to the reinsurer. Holding fixed an insurer's reported capital, we find that ModCo allows insurers to report higher risk-based capital ratios. Insurers with ModCo are less likely to fire sale downgraded bonds. We also find suggestive evidence of regulatory arbitrage, as most ModCo is purchased from reinsurers in countries with low capital requirements or within the same insurance group.     

Are covered bonds different from securitization bonds? A comparative analysis of credit spreads

This study compares credit spreads and pricing determinants of securitization vis-à-vis covered bonds. Our analysis reveals that although ratings are the most important pricing determinant for asset-backed securities (ABS) and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) investors place relatively more importance on contractual, macroeconomic and banks' characteristics rather than ratings in pricing covered bonds. We find evidence of a mispricing effect in structured finance markets: ABS and MBS have higher credit spreads than similarly rated public-covered bonds and mortgage-covered bonds and security prices reflect information beyond credit ratings. We find no evidence of borrowing costs affecting banks' choice between securitization and covered bonds.     

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.     

Does financing strategy accelerate corporate energy transition? Evidence from green bonds

With energy transition becoming an urgent priority for companies worldwide, practitioners and policymakers are urging them to finance climate-friendly projects. This paper investigates how the issuance of green bonds affects firms' carbon emissions and environmental performance. Our results show that green bond issuance significantly improves firms' overall environmental performance and their capacities to create new environmental technologies and processes. However, green bond issuance has a less clear effect on carbon emissions intensity and requires additional time (one or more years) before being able to improve the emissions intensity. Taken together, our study's findings clearly highlight the importance of green bonds in financing energy transition in the corporate sector and provide evidence to encourage policymakers to strengthen the legal framework relating to their issuance.     

Dynamic connectedness of China’s green bonds and asset classes

This paper quantifies the co-movement and time-varying integration between China's green bonds and other asset classes across different time domains using the wavelet coherence and time-frequency connectedness model based on the time-varying parameter VAR (TVP-VAR). First, we predominantly detect a strong positive co-movement of green and conventional bonds, especially in the medium and long term. Second, strong bidirectional spillovers exist between green bonds and treasury, corporate, and financial bonds regardless of the time horizon. Lastly, cross-market spillovers between the green bonds and the stock, energy, low-carbon stock market were quite limited in the short-run but strengthened towards the long-term except during the 2015 China stock market crash and the COVID-19 recession when short-term integration rose sharply. The results document some practical enlightenment for investors and policymakers with various time horizons.     

Should investors include green bonds in their portfolios? Evidence for the USA and Europe

The green bond market has seen a rapid growth world widely in recent years. This paper explores the role of green bonds in asset allocation using the dynamic R-vine copula-based mean-CVaR approach. We compare the performance of portfolios including green bonds with that of portfolios including conventional bonds in the U.S. and European markets. Empirical results show that portfolios with green bonds outperform portfolios with conventional bonds in terms of risk-adjusted returns in the majority of cases in both markets. The benefit of green bonds comes from both the increase in the return and the decrease in the volatility for most of the cases. Overall, our findings suggest that green bonds are beneficial to investors.