Research
Working Projects
Carbon emission and asset prices: new evidence from machine learning (with Feng Li)
Abstract:
We estimate a large data panel of carbon emissions by US firms with a machine learning algorithm known as XGBoost. We estimate scope 1 carbon emissions of listed firms from 2002 to 2021. This data set has a broad coverage of 4111 firms per year as compared to 1675 firms provided by data vendors. Based on this data set, we examine firms’ carbon risk pricing in the US equity market. The result shows that stocks of high-carbon firms earned higher returns before the Paris Agreement, whereas low-carbon firms outperform significantly in recent years. This contrasting phenomenon implies a positive shift in investors’ ESG-related preferences and is more pronounced with our estimated data sample. Overall, this paper complements rather than challenges previous empirical research from both sides and provides researchers with a novel approach to understanding climate finance.
Presentations at CICF 2023, 2023CFRI&CIRF Joint Conference, SBSICF 2023, CMCSR 2023. (Manuscript here, slides here)
Private Responsible Engagements and ESG Performance (with Danting Chang and Guanmin Liao )
Abstract:
Using unique data on institutional investors’ dialogues with the company management team during corporate visits, this paper reveals the existence and prevalence of institutional investors’ responsible engagement and its impact on firm ESG performances. Using an instrumental variable approach that isolates the increase in responsible engagements during the bad-air-quality-day visits, we show that such private responsible engagements from institutional investors are related to the engaged firms’ subsequent higher ESG performances. Moreover, this facilitating effect is more pronounced for financially constrained firms and weaker for state-owned enterprises. Taken together, our findings provide novel empirical evidence that institutional investors proactively and responsibly engage with firms through private in-house meetings by voicing their ESG concerns, which serves as an important factor for companies to achieve better ESG outcomes.
Carbon awareness and return co-movement (with Feng Li)
Abstract:
This paper documents a rise in investors’ carbon awareness in recent years with a novel approach. We show that for companies with similar carbon emissions amounts, the correlation in their stock price returns is higher. This emission-return correlation only became significant after 2012 and has been steadily increasing ever since, whereas it was barely significant before 2012. We provide evidence showing that this co-movement is driven by investor flows as investors purchase green stocks and divest brown stocks, and is stronger when investors’ attention to environmental news is higher. To address the endogeneity issue, we adopt a state’s emission reduction initiatives that exogenously increase firms’ emission similarity. Overall, this paper examines whether investors care about carbon risk and the pricing of carbon risk from a different perspective.
(Manuscript here)
Work in Progress
Misclassified green patents
Peacock’s Feathers: Strategic disclosure in mutual fund annual reports (Seems like a forever working project)