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Environmental performance and credit ratings: A transatlantic study

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  • Hu, Haoshen
  • Lazar, Emese
  • Pan, Jingqi
  • Wang, Shixuan

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of the firms’ environmental performance on their credit rating. To this end, we conduct a transatlantic study covering companies in the United States (US) and in the European Union (EU). Our study reveals that firms’ environmental improvements positively contribute to their credit ratings. However, this effect varies between the US and the EU. If US and European firms enhance their environmental performance by the same scale, the former’s creditworthiness benefits more than the latter’s. Additionally, we show that improvements in environmental performance affect credit ratings linearly in the US but nonlinearly in the EU. These findings shed light on the implications of the firms’ environmental performance and provide critical insights into the impact of corporate sustainability indicators on credit ratings.

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  • Hu, Haoshen & Lazar, Emese & Pan, Jingqi & Wang, Shixuan, 2024. "Environmental performance and credit ratings: A transatlantic study," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:96:y:2024:i:pb:s1057521924005672
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2024.103635
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Credit ratings; Climate risk; Environmental performance; Transatlantic study;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects

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