IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ecb/ecbwps/20222728.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Pricing of green bonds: drivers and dynamics of the greenium

Author

Listed:
  • Pietsch, Allegra
  • Salakhova, Dilyara

Abstract

The green bond market has increased rapidly in recent years amid growing concerns about climate change and wider environmental issues. However, whether green bonds provide cheaper funding to issuers by trading at a premium, so-called greenium, is still an open discussion. This paper provides evidence that a key factor explaining the greenium is the credibility of a green bond itself or that of its issuer. We define credible green bonds as those which have been under external review. Credible issuers are either firms in green sectors or banks signed up to UNEP FI. Another important factor is investors’ demand as the greenium becomes more statistically and economically significant over time. This is potentially driven by increased climate concerns as the green bond market follows a similar trend to that observed in ESG/green equity and investment fund sectors. To run our analysis, we construct a database of daily pricing data on closely matched green and non-green bonds of the same issuer in the euro area from 2016 to 2021. We then use Securities Holdings Statistics by Sector (SHSS) to analyse investors’ demand for green bonds. JEL Classification: G12, G14, Q50, A56

Suggested Citation

  • Pietsch, Allegra & Salakhova, Dilyara, 2022. "Pricing of green bonds: drivers and dynamics of the greenium," Working Paper Series 2728, European Central Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20222728
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ecb.europa.eu//pub/pdf/scpwps/ecb.wp2728~7baba8097e.en.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert F Engle & Stefano Giglio & Bryan Kelly & Heebum Lee & Johannes Stroebel, 2020. "Hedging Climate Change News," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(3), pages 1184-1216.
    2. Zerbib, Olivier David, 2019. "The effect of pro-environmental preferences on bond prices: Evidence from green bonds," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 39-60.
    3. Hélène Rey, 2016. "International Channels of Transmission of Monetary Policy and the Mundellian Trilemma," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 64(1), pages 6-35, May.
    4. Fatica, Serena & Panzica, Roberto & Rancan, Michela, 2021. "The pricing of green bonds: Are financial institutions special?," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    5. Francis A. Longstaff & Sanjay Mithal & Eric Neis, 2005. "Corporate Yield Spreads: Default Risk or Liquidity? New Evidence from the Credit Default Swap Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(5), pages 2213-2253, October.
    6. Coudert, Virginie & Salakhova, Dilyara, 2020. "Do mutual fund flows affect the French corporate bond market?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 496-510.
    7. Flammer, Caroline, 2021. "Corporate green bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 499-516.
    8. Pástor, Ľuboš & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2022. "Dissecting green returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 403-424.
    9. De Santis, Roberto A. & Geis, André & Juskaite, Aiste & Cruz, Lia Vaz, 2018. "The impact of the corporate sector purchase programme on corporate bond markets and the financing of euro area non-financial corporations," Economic Bulletin Articles, European Central Bank, vol. 3.
    10. Abidi, Nordine & Miquel-Flores, Ixart, 2018. "Who benefits from the corporate QE? A regression discontinuity design approach," Working Paper Series 2145, European Central Bank.
    11. Larcker, David F. & Watts, Edward M., 2020. "Where's the greenium?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2).
    12. Song Han & Hao Zhou, 2016. "Effects of Liquidity on the Non-Default Component of Corporate Yield Spreads: Evidence from Intraday Transactions Data," Quarterly Journal of Finance (QJF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 6(03), pages 1-49, September.
    13. Torsten Ehlers & Benoit Mojon & Frank Packer, 2020. "Green bonds and carbon emissions: exploring the case for a rating system at the firm level," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.
    14. Coudert, Virginie & Couharde, Cécile & Mignon, Valérie, 2011. "Exchange rate volatility across financial crises," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 3010-3018, November.
    15. Philip Bond & Alex Edmans & Itay Goldstein, 2012. "The Real Effects of Financial Markets," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 339-360, October.
    16. Torsten Ehlers & Frank Packer, 2017. "Green bond finance and certification," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.
    17. Alex Edmans & Itay Goldstein & Wei Jiang, 2012. "The Real Effects of Financial Markets: The Impact of Prices on Takeovers," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(3), pages 933-971, June.
    18. Jack Bao & Jun Pan & Jiang Wang, 2011. "The Illiquidity of Corporate Bonds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(3), pages 911-946, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Martijn A. Boermans & Maurice Bun & Yasmine van der Straten, 2024. "Funding the Fittest? Pricing of Climate Transition Risk in the Corporate Bond Market," Working Papers 797, DNB.
    2. Lorenzo Mercuri & Andrea Perchiazzo & Edit Rroji, 2023. "Investigating Short-Term Dynamics in Green Bond Markets," Papers 2308.12179, arXiv.org.
    3. Jarosław Brożek & Anna Kożuch & Marek Wieruszewski & Roman Jaszczak & Krzysztof Adamowicz, 2024. "Taxonomy Regulation as a New Instrument for the Sustainable Management of the Forest Environment in Europe," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-20, October.
    4. Banerjee, Rhythm, 2024. "Shifting Tides: the Effect of Institutional Divestments on the Global Market," MPRA Paper 121922, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 11 Apr 2024.
    5. Nerlich, Carolin & Köhler-Ulbrich, Petra & Andersson, Malin & Pasqua, Carlo & Abraham, Laurent & Bańkowski, Krzysztof & Emambakhsh, Tina & Ferrando, Annalisa & Grynberg, Charlotte & Groß, Johannes & H, 2025. "Investing in Europe’s green future: green investment needs, outlook and obstacles to funding the gap," Occasional Paper Series 367, European Central Bank.
    6. Caramichael, John & Rapp, Andreas C., 2024. "The green corporate bond issuance premium," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    7. Martijn Boermans, 2023. "Preferred habitat investors in the green bond market," Working Papers 773, DNB.
    8. Martijn Boermans, 2022. "A literature review of securities holdings statistics research and a practitioner’s guide," Working Papers 757, DNB.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Coudert, Virginie & Salakhova, Dilyara, 2020. "Do mutual fund flows affect the French corporate bond market?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 496-510.
    2. García, C. José & Herrero, Begoña & Miralles-Quirós, José Luis & del Mar Mirallles-Quirós, Maria, 2023. "Exploring the determinants of corporate green bond issuance and its environmental implication: The role of corporate board," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    3. Danilo Liberati & Giuseppe Marinelli, 2024. "Was Covid-19 a wake-up call on climate risks? Evidence from the greenium," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 832, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    4. Zenno, Yoshihiro & Aruga, Kentaka, 2023. "Investing the factors affecting green bond investments in China: Cases for Beijing and Shenzhen," MPRA Paper 116203, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Virginie Coudert & Dilyara Salakhova, 2019. "Price effect of mutual fund flows on the corporate bond market. The French case," Working papers 706, Banque de France.
    6. Breckenfelder, Johannes & Maćkowiak, Bartosz & Marqués-Ibáñez, David & Olovsson, Conny & Popov, Alexander & Porcellacchia, Davide & Schepens, Glenn, 2023. "The climate and the economy," Working Paper Series 2793, European Central Bank.
    7. Huang, Chih-Yueh & Dekker, David & Christopoulos, Dimitrios, 2023. "Rethinking greenium: A quadratic function of yield spread," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    8. Karel Janda & Binyi Zhang, 2021. "Attractiveness of Chinese Bonds Financing Climate and Environmental Projects," FFA Working Papers 4.007, Prague University of Economics and Business, revised 26 Apr 2022.
    9. Drudi, Francesco & Moench, Emanuel & Holthausen, Cornelia & Weber, Pierre-François & Ferrucci, Gianluigi & Setzer, Ralph & Adao, Bernardino & Dées, Stéphane & Alogoskoufis, Spyros & Téllez, Mar Delgad, 2021. "Climate change and monetary policy in the euro area," Occasional Paper Series 271, European Central Bank.
    10. Alessi, Lucia & Elisa, Ossola & Panzica, Roberto, 2021. "When do investors go green? Evidence from a time-varying asset-pricing model," JRC Working Papers in Economics and Finance 2021-13, Joint Research Centre, European Commission.
    11. Zerbib, Olivier David, 2019. "The effect of pro-environmental preferences on bond prices: Evidence from green bonds," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 39-60.
    12. Hu, Xiaolu & Zhong, Angel & Cao, Youdan, 2022. "Greenium in the Chinese corporate bond market," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    13. Akhtaruzzaman, Md & Banerjee, Ameet Kumar & Ghardallou, Wafa & Umar, Zaghum, 2022. "Is greenness an optimal hedge for sectoral stock indices?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    14. Liu, Min, 2022. "The driving forces of green bond market volatility and the response of the market to the COVID-19 pandemic," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 288-309.
    15. Koziol, Christian & Proelss, Juliane & Roßmann, Philipp & Schweizer, Denis, 2022. "The price of being green," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    16. Sangiorgi, Ivan & Schopohl, Lisa, 2023. "Explaining green bond issuance using survey evidence: Beyond the greenium," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(1).
    17. Agoraki, Maria-Eleni K. & Aslanidis, Nektarios & Kouretas, Georgios P., 2023. "How has COVID-19 affected the performance of green investment funds?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    18. Silva, Florinda & Ferreira, André & Cortez, Maria Céu, 2024. "The performance of green bond portfolios under climate uncertainty: A comparative analysis with conventional and black bond portfolios," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(PA).
    19. Li, Quan & Zhang, Kai & Wang, Li, 2022. "Where's the green bond premium? Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    20. Alessandro Moro, 2021. "Can capital controls promote green investments in developing countries?," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1348, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    climate change; corporate sustainability; impact investing; sustainable finance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • Q50 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20222728. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Official Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/emieude.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.