Seminar (Dept. of Finance)

Title: Climate Value and Values Discovery in Earnings Calls

Speaker: Ruishen Zhang, Associate Professor of Accounting, School of Accountancy, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics

Time: 10:00-11:30, May 17, 2024(Friday)

Venue: Room 1008, Mingde Business Building

Language: English/Chinese

ABSTRACT:

We examine how financial analysts discuss value- and values-related climate change concerns in earnings calls. Questions on climate change frequently employ specific, and often quantitative, language, and they are tailored to both the industry in question and periods when such concerns are considered relevant. Compared to other questions, climate change questions are less about value and more about values. Both climate related question types increased over time, with value-related questions becoming relatively more important. Climate change discussions, especially when value-related, increase a stock’s trading volume, reflecting higher investor disagreement about how to interpret the information provided. Being “green” is not an innate trait among analysts as less than 3 percent of the variance in climate change questions is due to analyst fixed effects. Analyst labor markets care about climate change questions: Both question types positively predict analysts’ career trajectories, including promotions and mobility, with value queries showing a more pronounced effect.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY:

Ruishen Zhang is an Associate Professor of Accounting in School of Accountancy, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. He obtained his Ph.D.in Accounting from Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. His research interests center on climate finance, information production in capital markets, corporate governance and executive compensation, and the political economy of finance and accounting. He has published papers on Journal of Finance, Management Science and etc.