Seminar (Dept. of Finance)

Theme：Corporate Climate Risk: Measurements and Responses

Speaker：Vincent Yao, Professor of Real Estate and Finance, Georgia State University

Time：2022-09-16 09:00

Address：Online Meeting

Language：Chinese/English

ABSTRACT:

This paper quantifies climate risk exposure at the firm level by adopting a method of textual analysis and using earnings call transcript data. We construct dictionaries that measure physical and transition climate risks separately and identify firms that respond proactively. We validate our measures in a variety of ways and find that they capture firm-level variations in respective climate risk exposure. Firms facing higher transition risk, especially those that do not respond proactively, have been valued at a discount in recent years as aggregate investor attention to climate-related issues rises. Firms respond through investment and employment differently when their climate risk exposure increases.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY:

Vincent Yao is the AREA Chair Professor, Professor of Real Estate, Professor of Finance and Director of Real Estate Center in the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA. He is also a senior research fellow at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and a research fellow at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. He holds visiting chair professorship at several universities.

Prior to joining GSU, Professor Yao spent over nine years as a director in Fannie Mae, responsible for overseeing a credit portfolio of $3 trillion loans guaranteed and securitized by the company.

Professor Yao's current research interests are household finance, real estate finance, and housing policies. His papers have been published in the American Economic Review, the Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, the Review of Financial Studies, Management Science, and Journal of Urban Economics.