Seminar (Dept. of Finance)

Theme：Global Carbon Divestment and Firms’ Actions

Speaker：Wenxi Jiang, Assistant Professor, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Time：2021-05-21 10:00

Address：Zoom Meeting

Language：English

Venue：Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.com.cn/j/67175149336?pwd=a3VXSmFVR1VxdUdyVm90ZFFmNXdjUT09 

Meeting ID：671 7514 9336

password：821025

ABSTRACT:

We examine the actions of financial institutions and firms regarding greenhouse gas emissions. We find that financial institutions around the world reduce their exposure to stocks of high-emission industries after 2015, especially for those located in high-climate-awareness countries, suggesting that institutions are concerned about climate risks in recent years. In the presence of divestment, public high-emission firms in the same countries tend to experience lower price valuation ratios, but they increase capital expenditure, research and development (R&D) expenses, and green innovation activities, and reduce emissions resulting from their operations. We do not obtain the same results using private firms. Our results support the notion that divestment campaigns by financial institutions exert pressure on public firms to adopt climate-friendly policies and decrease carbon footprints.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY:

Wenxi Jiang is an assistant professor of finance at the CUHK Business school of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He earned his PhD in finance from Yale in 2015, and B.A. in management from Renmin University of China in 2007. His primary research interests lie in the fields of asset pricing, financial institution, behavioral finance, climate finance, and the Chinese financial markets. In these areas, he has published many papers in top economics and finance journals including Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, and Journal of Econometrics.