IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i23p15836-d986608.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Comparing the Impacts of Sustainability Narratives on American and European Energy Shareholders: A Multi-Event Study Analysing Reactions to News before and during COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Alberto Barroso del Toro

    (Department of Statistic and Operation Research, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Jordi de Girona 31, 08034 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Laura Vivas Crisol

    (Department of Finance and Accounting, Ramon Lull University, Claravall, 1, 3, 08022 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Xavier Tort-Martorell

    (Department of Statistic and Operation Research, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Jordi de Girona 31, 08034 Barcelona, Spain)

Abstract

This study analysed how positive, neutral, and negative sustainability news impacted the share prices of American and European energy companies, focusing on short-term market reactions. Our goal was to understand whether or not the sustainability narrative had similar effects on share-holder behaviour in both markets, and whether the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way shareholders invested as they faced uncertainty. We used the event study methodology to analyse the cumulative average abnormal returns (CAAR). We gathered 2134 event studies according to the type of energy source (renewable, fossil fuel or nuclear) and news sentiments. We analysed all global and digital news on sustainability from 2017 to 2020 using the GDELT news database as a source of information, which contains 295,093 viral news stories (high-volume news). The results showed notable differences between the American and European market reactions. The American market was much more optimistic, particularly during the pandemic. At the same time, the European market was more negative, showing declines in prices even in the face of positive news about nuclear and renewable energy. Nevertheless, both markets agreed that nuclear power was still on investors’ agenda. Finally, fossil fuels were less penalised by investors following negative or neutral news than other types of energy and were equally or more rewarded following positive news. So, it could be concluded that fossil fuel investors were less impacted by negative news about the energy market before and during COVID-19. These results could be relevant for policy makers in the context of changing the current shareholders’ narratives and incentives towards an effective sustainable energy transition through the use of new incentives/legislations.

Suggested Citation

  • Alberto Barroso del Toro & Laura Vivas Crisol & Xavier Tort-Martorell, 2022. "Comparing the Impacts of Sustainability Narratives on American and European Energy Shareholders: A Multi-Event Study Analysing Reactions to News before and during COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-18, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:23:p:15836-:d:986608
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/23/15836/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/23/15836/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kon, Stanley J, 1984. "Models of Stock Returns-A Comparison," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(1), pages 147-165, March.
    2. Campbell, John Y. & Hentschel, Ludger, 1992. "No news is good news *1: An asymmetric model of changing volatility in stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 281-318, June.
    3. Michael C. Jensen, 2010. "Value Maximization, Stakeholder Theory, and the Corporate Objective Function," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 22(1), pages 32-42, January.
    4. Jan Bartholdy & Dennis Olson & Paula Peare, 2007. "Conducting Event Studies on a Small Stock Exchange," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 227-252.
    5. Gunther Capelle-Blancard & Aurélien Petit, 2019. "Every Little Helps? ESG News and Stock Market Reaction," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(2), pages 543-565, June.
    6. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1997. "A Survey of Corporate Governance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(2), pages 737-783, June.
    7. Pindyck, Robert S, 1984. "Risk, Inflation, and the Stock Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 335-351, June.
    8. Anjum Amin-Chaudhry, 2016. "Corporate social responsibility – from a mere concept to an expected business practice," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 12(1), pages 190-207, March.
    9. Stefano Ramelli & Alexander F. Wagner, 2020. "Feverish Stock Price Reactions to COVID-19," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 20-12, Swiss Finance Institute.
    10. Costanza Consolandi & Ameeta Jaiswal-Dale & Elisa Poggiani & Alessandro Vercelli, 2009. "Global Standards and Ethical Stock Indexes: The Case of the Dow Jones Sustainability Stoxx Index," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(1), pages 185-197, April.
    11. Oberlechner, Thomas & Hocking, Sam, 2004. "Information sources, news, and rumors in financial markets: Insights into the foreign exchange market," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 407-424, June.
    12. Renneboog, Luc & Ter Horst, Jenke & Zhang, Chendi, 2008. "The price of ethics and stakeholder governance: The performance of socially responsible mutual funds," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 302-322, June.
    13. Jun Xie & Wataru Nozawa & Michiyuki Yagi & Hidemichi Fujii & Shunsuke Managi, 2019. "Do environmental, social, and governance activities improve corporate financial performance?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 286-300, February.
    14. Rui Albuquerque & Yrjo Koskinen & Shuai Yang & Chendi Zhang, 2020. "Resiliency of Environmental and Social Stocks: An Analysis of the Exogenous COVID-19 Market Crash," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 9(3), pages 593-621.
    15. Nils Engelhardt & Jens Ekkenga & Peter Posch, 2021. "ESG Ratings and Stock Performance during the COVID-19 Crisis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-15, June.
    16. Ding, Wenzhi & Levine, Ross & Lin, Chen & Xie, Wensi, 2021. "Corporate immunity to the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 802-830.
    17. Alessio M. Pacces, 2021. "Will the EU Taxonomy Regulation Foster Sustainable Corporate Governance?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, November.
    18. Hart, Oliver & Zingales, Luigi, 2017. "Companies Should Maximize Shareholder Welfare Not Market Value," Journal of Law, Finance, and Accounting, now publishers, vol. 2(2), pages 247-275, November.
    19. Gregory S. Miller, 2006. "The Press as a Watchdog for Accounting Fraud," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(5), pages 1001-1033, December.
    20. Tanveer Ahsan & Muhammad Azeem Qureshi, 2021. "The nexus between policy uncertainty, sustainability disclosure and firm performance," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(4), pages 441-453, January.
    21. Oberndorfer, Ulrich & Schmidt, Peter & Wagner, Marcus & Ziegler, Andreas, 2013. "Does the stock market value the inclusion in a sustainability stock index? An event study analysis for German firms," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 497-509.
    22. Alberto Barroso del Toro & Xavier Tort-Martorell & Miguel Angel Canela, 2022. "How shareholders react to sustainable narratives about leading European energy companies? An event study using sentiment data from the global database for events, language and tone (GDELT)," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(30), pages 3482-3494, June.
    23. Broadstock, David C. & Chan, Kalok & Cheng, Louis T.W. & Wang, Xiaowei, 2021. "The role of ESG performance during times of financial crisis: Evidence from COVID-19 in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    24. Lööf, Hans & Sahamkhadam, Maziar & Stephan, Andreas, 2022. "Is Corporate Social Responsibility investing a free lunch? The relationship between ESG, tail risk, and upside potential of stocks before and during the COVID-19 crisis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PB).
    25. Ghulame Rubbaniy & Ali Awais Khalid & Muhammad Faisal Rizwan & Shoaib Ali, 2021. "Are ESG stocks safe-haven during COVID-19?," Studies in Economics and Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 39(2), pages 239-255, December.
    26. Karl V. Lins & Henri Servaes & Ane Tamayo, 2017. "Social Capital, Trust, and Firm Performance: The Value of Corporate Social Responsibility during the Financial Crisis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(4), pages 1785-1824, August.
    27. Maria J. Charlo & Ismael Moya & Ana M. Muñoz, 2017. "Sustainable Development in Spanish Listed Companies: A Strategic Approach," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(3), pages 222-234, May.
    28. Fama, Eugene F, 1970. "Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 25(2), pages 383-417, May.
    29. Hua Yin & Mingyu Li & Yuan Ma & Qiang Zhang, 2019. "The Relationship between Environmental Information Disclosure and Profitability: A Comparison between Different Disclosure Styles," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-14, May.
    30. Ronald W. Masulis & Syed Walid Reza, 2015. "Agency Problems of Corporate Philanthropy," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(2), pages 592-636.
    31. Wagner, Alexander F. & Ramelli, Stefano, 2020. "Feverish Stock Price Reactions to COVID-19," CEPR Discussion Papers 14511, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    32. Jean-Charles Hourcade & Dipak Dasgupta & Frédéric Ghersi, 2021. "Accelerating the speed and scale of climate finance in the post-pandemic context," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(10), pages 1383-1397, November.
    33. Elizabeth Demers & Jurian Hendrikse & Philip Joos & Baruch Lev, 2021. "ESG did not immunize stocks during the COVID‐19 crisis, but investments in intangible assets did," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3-4), pages 433-462, March.
    34. Navarro, Peter, 1988. "Why Do Corporations Give to Charity?," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(1), pages 65-93, January.
    35. Gregory, Richard Paul, 2022. "ESG scores and the response of the S&P 1500 to monetary and fiscal policy during the Covid-19 pandemic," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 446-456.
    36. S. James Press, 1967. "A Compound Events Model for Security Prices," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 40, pages 317-317.
    37. Stefano Ramelli & Alexander F Wagner, 2020. "Feverish Stock Price Reactions to COVID-19," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 9(3), pages 622-655.
    38. Garel, Alexandre & Petit-Romec, Arthur, 2021. "Investor rewards to environmental responsibility: Evidence from the COVID-19 crisis," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    39. Ing-Haw Cheng & Harrison Hong & Kelly Shue, 2013. "Do Managers Do Good with Other People's Money?," NBER Working Papers 19432, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    40. Amal Aouadi & Sylvain Marsat, 2018. "Do ESG Controversies Matter for Firm Value? Evidence from International Data," Post-Print halshs-02007374, HAL.
    41. French, Kenneth R. & Schwert, G. William & Stambaugh, Robert F., 1987. "Expected stock returns and volatility," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 3-29, September.
    42. Chris Pinney & Sophie Lawrence & Stephanie Lau, 2019. "Sustainability and Capital Markets—Are We There Yet?," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 31(2), pages 86-91, June.
    43. Amal Aouadi & Sylvain Marsat, 2018. "Do ESG Controversies Matter for Firm Value? Evidence from International Data," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(4), pages 1027-1047, September.
    44. Brown, Stephen J. & Warner, Jerold B., 1985. "Using daily stock returns : The case of event studies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 3-31, March.
    45. Tim Loughran & Bill Mcdonald, 2016. "Textual Analysis in Accounting and Finance: A Survey," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 1187-1230, September.
    46. Kais Bouslah & Lawrence Kryzanowski & Bouchra M’Zali, 2018. "Social Performance and Firm Risk: Impact of the Financial Crisis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(3), pages 643-669, May.
    47. Byun, Seong K. & Oh, Jong-Min, 2018. "Local corporate social responsibility, media coverage, and shareholder value," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 68-86.
    48. Paul C. Tetlock, 2007. "Giving Content to Investor Sentiment: The Role of Media in the Stock Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(3), pages 1139-1168, June.
    49. Lian Fen Lee & Amy P. Hutton & Susan Shu, 2015. "The Role of Social Media in the Capital Market: Evidence from Consumer Product Recalls," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 367-404, May.
    50. Ali Alshehhi & Haitham Nobanee & Nilesh Khare, 2018. "The Impact of Sustainability Practices on Corporate Financial Performance: Literature Trends and Future Research Potential," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-25, February.
    51. Cheung, Adrian (Wai Kong) & Roca, Eduardo, 2013. "The effect on price, liquidity and risk when stocks are added to and deleted from a sustainability index: Evidence from the Asia Pacific context," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 51-65.
    52. A. Craig MacKinlay, 1997. "Event Studies in Economics and Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(1), pages 13-39, March.
    53. Tim Loughran & Bill Mcdonald, 2011. "When Is a Liability Not a Liability? Textual Analysis, Dictionaries, and 10‐Ks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(1), pages 35-65, February.
    54. Robert D. Klassen & Curtis P. McLaughlin, 1996. "The Impact of Environmental Management on Firm Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(8), pages 1199-1214, August.
    55. Aaron K. Chatterji & Rodolphe Durand & David I. Levine & Samuel Touboul, 2016. "Do ratings of firms converge? Implications for managers, investors and strategy researchers," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(8), pages 1597-1614, August.
    56. repec:eme:sef000:sef-08-2021-0320 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Alberto Barroso Del Toro & Laura Vivas Crisol & Xavier Tort-Martorell, 2022. "The Sustainability Narrative: A Multi Study Using Event Studies to Analyse the American Energy Companies Shareholder’s Reaction to Sustainability News," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-17, November.
    2. Yi, Yuyang & Zhang, Zongyi & Xiang, Cheng, 2022. "The value of CSR during the COVID-19 crisis: Evidence from Chinese firms," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    3. Liu, Lian & Nemoto, Naoko & Lu, Changrong, 2023. "The Effect of ESG performance on the stock market during the COVID-19 Pandemic — Evidence from Japan," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 702-712.
    4. Giovanni Cardillo & Ennio Bendinelli & Giuseppe Torluccio, 2023. "COVID‐19, ESG investing, and the resilience of more sustainable stocks: Evidence from European firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 602-623, January.
    5. Rim El Khoury & Nohade Nasrallah & Khaled Hussainey, 2022. "Exploring the performance of responsible companies in G20 during the COVID-19 outbreak," Post-Print hal-03761427, HAL.
    6. Gregory, Richard Paul, 2022. "ESG scores and the response of the S&P 1500 to monetary and fiscal policy during the Covid-19 pandemic," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 446-456.
    7. Fariha Jahan & Jungmu Kim, 2023. "Does the Shield Effect of CSR Work in Crises? Evidence in Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-18, June.
    8. Bae, Kee-Hong & El Ghoul, Sadok & Gong, Zhaoran (Jason) & Guedhami, Omrane, 2021. "Does CSR matter in times of crisis? Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    9. Andrea Jacob & Martin Nerlinger, 2021. "Investors’ Delight? Climate Risk in Stock Valuation during COVID-19 and Beyond," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-17, November.
    10. Hasan, Iftekhar & Marra, Miriam & To, Thomas Y. & Wu, Eliza & Zhang, Gaiyan, 2023. "COVID-19 Pandemic and Global Corporate CDS Spreads," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    11. Andrieș, Alin Marius & Ongena, Steven & Sprincean, Nicu, 2021. "The COVID-19 Pandemic and Sovereign Bond Risk," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    12. Hans B. Christensen & Luzi Hail & Christian Leuz, 2021. "Mandatory CSR and sustainability reporting: economic analysis and literature review," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 1176-1248, September.
    13. Ding, Wenzhi & Levine, Ross & Lin, Chen & Xie, Wensi, 2021. "Corporate immunity to the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 802-830.
    14. Nguyen, Harvey & Pham, Anh Viet & Pham, Man Duy (Marty) & Pham, Mia Hang, 2023. "Business resilience: Lessons from government responses to the global COVID-19 crisis," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(5).
    15. Demir, Ender & Danisman, Gamze Ozturk, 2021. "Banking sector reactions to COVID-19: The role of bank-specific factors and government policy responses," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    16. Aakriti Mathur & Rajeswari Sengupta & Bhanu Pratap, 2022. "Saved by the bell? Equity market responses to surprise Covid-19 lockdowns and central bank interventions," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2022-001, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    17. Eisenkopf, Jana & Juranek, Steffen & Walz, Uwe, 2021. "Responsible investment and stock market shocks: Short-term insurance and persistent outperformance post-crisis?," SAFE Working Paper Series 329, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    18. Neukirchen, Daniel & Engelhardt, Nils & Krause, Miguel & Posch, Peter N., 2023. "The value of (private) investor relations during the COVID-19 crisis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    19. Bai, Min & Ho, Ly, 2022. "Corporate social performance and firm debt levels: Impacts of the covid-19 pandemic and institutional environments," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    20. Nils Engelhardt & Jens Ekkenga & Peter Posch, 2021. "ESG Ratings and Stock Performance during the COVID-19 Crisis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-15, June.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:23:p:15836-:d:986608. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.