IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/jrs/wpaper/201907.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The pricing of green bonds: are financial institutions special?

Author

Abstract

The financial system plays a major role in the transition to a low-carbon economy. We investigate this issue analysing the recent developments and challenges in the bond and debt markets. First, we study the pricing of green bonds at issuance. We find a premium when green bonds are issued by supranational institutions and corporates while there is no effect for financial institutions. We also document an effect for external review and repeated access to this market. Second, we investigate lending decisions by banks issuing green bonds. Our results show that these lenders reduce their funding towards more polluting segments of the economy but limited to the amount of loans they granted as lead bank in the deal. This evidence may explain why we do not find a green premium for financial issuers. Yet it also suggests that the banking system may play a much larger role in channelling funds towards low-carbon activities, and thus reducing the environmental risks also for the financial system.

Suggested Citation

  • Serena Fatica & Roberto Panzica & Michela Rancan, 2019. "The pricing of green bonds: are financial institutions special?," JRC Working Papers in Economics and Finance 201907, Joint Research Centre, European Commission.
    • Handle: RePEc:jrs:wpaper:201907
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC116157/jrc116157_faticapanzicarancan_gbpricing_jrc_report_01.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Malcolm Baker & Daniel Bergstresser & George Serafeim & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2018. "Financing the Response to Climate Change: The Pricing and Ownership of U.S. Green Bonds," NBER Working Papers 25194, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Samuel M. Hartzmark & Abigail B. Sussman, 2019. "Do Investors Value Sustainability? A Natural Experiment Examining Ranking and Fund Flows," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 74(6), pages 2789-2837, December.
    3. Klomp, Jeroen, 2014. "Financial fragility and natural disasters: An empirical analysis," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 180-192.
    4. Andreas Karpf & Antoine Mandel, 2018. "The changing value of the ‘green’ label on the US municipal bond market," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(2), pages 161-165, February.
    5. Arno Riedl & Paul Smeets, 2017. "Why Do Investors Hold Socially Responsible Mutual Funds?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(6), pages 2505-2550, December.
    6. Viral V Acharya & Tim Eisert & Christian Eufinger & Christian Hirsch, 2018. "Real Effects of the Sovereign Debt Crisis in Europe: Evidence from Syndicated Loans," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(8), pages 2855-2896.
    7. Stefano Battiston & Antoine Mandel & Irene Monasterolo & Franziska Schütze & Gabriele Visentin, 2017. "A climate stress-test of the financial system," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 7(4), pages 283-288, April.
    8. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2007. "Disagreement, tastes, and asset prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(3), pages 667-689, March.
    9. Chen, Tsung-Kang & Liao, Hsien-Hsing & Tsai, Pei-Ling, 2011. "Internal liquidity risk in corporate bond yield spreads," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 978-987, April.
    10. El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane & Kwok, Chuck C.Y. & Mishra, Dev R., 2011. "Does corporate social responsibility affect the cost of capital?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 2388-2406, September.
    11. Hachenberg, B. & Schiereck, D., 2018. "Are green bonds priced differently from conventional bonds?," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 109709, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    12. Ivashina, Victoria, 2009. "Asymmetric information effects on loan spreads," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 300-319, May.
    13. Mariassunta Giannetti & Farzad Saidi, 2019. "Shock Propagation and Banking Structure," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(7), pages 2499-2540.
    14. Manthos D. Delis & Kathrin de Greiff & Steven Ongena, 2018. "Being Stranded on the Carbon Bubble? Climate Policy Risk and the Pricing of Bank Loans," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 18-10, Swiss Finance Institute, revised May 2018.
    15. Torsten Ehlers & Frank Packer, 2017. "Green bond finance and certification," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.
    16. Hong, Harrison & Kacperczyk, Marcin, 2009. "The price of sin: The effects of social norms on markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 15-36, July.
    17. Olivier David Zerbib, 2019. "The effect of pro-environmental preferences on bond prices: Evidence from green bonds," Post-Print halshs-02008641, HAL.
    18. 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.
    19. Edith Ginglinger & Quentin Moreau, 2023. "Climate Risk and Capital Structure," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(12), pages 7492-7516, December.
    20. repec:oup:qjecon:v:129:y:2013:i:1:p:1-59 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Mark P. Sharfman & Chitru S. Fernando, 2008. "Environmental risk management and the cost of capital," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 569-592, June.
    22. Amir Sufi, 2007. "Information Asymmetry and Financing Arrangements: Evidence from Syndicated Loans," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(2), pages 629-668, April.
    23. Hale, Galina B. & Spiegel, Mark M., 2012. "Currency composition of international bonds: The EMU effect," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 134-149.
    24. Jeremy C. Stein & Anil K. Kashyap, 2000. "What Do a Million Observations on Banks Say about the Transmission of Monetary Policy?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(3), pages 407-428, June.
    25. Wang, Ashley W. & Zhang, Gaiyan, 2009. "Institutional ownership and credit spreads: An information asymmetry perspective," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 597-612, September.
    26. Sudheer Chava, 2014. "Environmental Externalities and Cost of Capital," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(9), pages 2223-2247, September.
    27. Gozzi, Juan Carlos & Levine, Ross & Martinez Peria, Maria Soledad & Schmukler, Sergio L., 2015. "How firms use corporate bond markets under financial globalization," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 532-551.
    28. Goss, Allen & Roberts, Gordon S., 2011. "The impact of corporate social responsibility on the cost of bank loans," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1794-1810, July.
    29. Britta Hachenberg & Dirk Schiereck, 2018. "Are green bonds priced differently from conventional bonds?," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(6), pages 371-383, October.
    30. Todd A. Gormley & David A. Matsa, 2011. "Growing Out of Trouble? Corporate Responses to Liability Risk," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(8), pages 2781-2821.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. 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.
    2. Ramelli, Stefano & Ossola, Elisa & Rancan, Michela, 2020. "Climate Sin Stocks: Stock Price Reactions to Global Climate Strikes," Working Papers 2020-03, Joint Research Centre, European Commission.
    3. Gregor Dorfleitner & Sebastian Utz & Rongxin Zhang, 2022. "The pricing of green bonds: external reviews and the shades of green," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 797-834, April.
    4. Pástor, Ľuboš & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2021. "Sustainable investing in equilibrium," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 550-571.
    5. Koziol, Christian & Proelss, Juliane & Roßmann, Philipp & Schweizer, Denis, 2022. "The price of being green," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    6. Díaz, Antonio & Escribano, Ana, 2021. "Sustainability premium in energy bonds," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    7. Elettra Agliardi & Rossella Agliardi, 2021. "Corporate Green Bonds: Understanding the Greenium in a Two-Factor Structural Model," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 80(2), pages 257-278, October.
    8. Hu, Xiaolu & Zhong, Angel & Cao, Youdan, 2022. "Greenium in the Chinese corporate bond market," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    9. Ramelli, Stefano & Ossola, Elisa & Rancan, Michela, 2021. "Stock price effects of climate activism: Evidence from the first Global Climate Strike," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    10. Li, Yanxi & Yu, Conghui & Shi, Jinyan & Liu, Yuanyuan, 2023. "How does green bond issuance affect total factor productivity? Evidence from Chinese listed enterprises," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    11. Tiziano De Angelis & Peter Tankov & Olivier David Zerbib, 2022. "Climate Impact Investing," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 676 JEL Classification: G, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    12. Ricardo Gimeno & Clara I. González, 2022. "The role of a green factor in stock prices. When Fama & French go green," Working Papers 2207, Banco de España.
    13. repec:hig:wpaper:101sti2019 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Wang, Ren & Bian, Yuxiang & Xiong, Xiong, 2024. "Impact of ESG preferences on investments and emissions in a DSGE framework," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    15. Opp, Marcus & Oehmke, Martin, 2020. "A theory of socially responsible investment," CEPR Discussion Papers 14351, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Kocaarslan, Baris, 2023. "Funding liquidity risk and the volatility of U.S. municipal green bonds during the COVID-19 pandemic," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PD).
    17. David Gilchrist & Jing Yu & Rui Zhong, 2021. "The Limits of Green Finance: A Survey of Literature in the Context of Green Bonds and Green Loans," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-12, January.
    18. Jiang, Kangqi & Chen, Zhongfei & Chen, Fanglin, 2022. "Green creates value: Evidence from China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    19. Yuan, Mingqing, 2024. "Beyond green bonds: Stock market reactions to ESG bond announcements and issuances in Japan," MPRA Paper 120943, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Aleksandar Petreski & Dorothea Schäfer & Andreas Stephan, 2022. "Green Bonds’ Reputation Effect and Its Impact on the Financing Costs of the Real Estate Sector," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 2019, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    21. Steven D. Baker & Burton Hollifield & Emilio Osambela, 2022. "Asset Prices and Portfolios with Externalities [Pricedetermination in the EU ETS market: theory and econometric analysis with market fundamentals]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(6), pages 1433-1468.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    sustainable finance; climate change; bond interest rates; financial institutions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • Q52 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

    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:jrs:wpaper:201907. 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: Peter Benczur (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ipjrces.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.