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Charting a “Green Path” for Recovery from COVID-19

Author

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  • Samson Mukanjari

    (University of Gothenburg
    University of Johannesburg)

  • Thomas Sterner

    (University of Gothenburg)

Abstract

Should the economic recovery from the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) be green? The current crisis is so severe that we should not take the answer for granted. It requires serious thought and we start by reviewing some arguments for and against a green approach. A crucial element is of course to see how different industries fare in the current crisis. Our empirical contribution is to examine daily stock returns for firms from the STOXX Europe 600 index. We find that firms with higher carbon intensities experienced significantly large decreases in stock values particularly those within the crude petroleum extraction, air transport and coke and refined petroleum industries. Our tentative conclusion is that efforts to revitalize the economy should avoid subsidizing stranded assets and instead target the industries of the future. However, identifying these will not necessarily be easy. We find, for example, that having an official ESG “climate change policy” has no effect on firm performance during the pandemic. We suggest possible ways of designing a new form of more informative index.

Suggested Citation

  • Samson Mukanjari & Thomas Sterner, 2020. "Charting a “Green Path” for Recovery from COVID-19," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 76(4), pages 825-853, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:76:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1007_s10640-020-00479-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s10640-020-00479-0
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    Cited by:

    1. Philippe Le Billon & Païvi Lujala & Devyani Singh & Vance Culbert & Berit Kristoffersen, 2021. "Fossil fuels, climate change, and the COVID-19 crisis: pathways for a just and green post-pandemic recovery," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(10), pages 1347-1356, November.
    2. Zou, Fei & Huang, Lingyu & Ghaemi Asl, Mahdi & Delnavaz, Mohammad & Tiwari, Sunil, 2023. "Natural resources and green economic recovery in responsible investments: Role of ESG in context of Islamic sustainable investments," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(PA).
    3. Ali, Syed Riaz Mahmood & Mensi, Walid & Anik, Kaysul Islam & Rahman, Mishkatur & Kang, Sang Hoon, 2022. "The impacts of COVID-19 crisis on spillovers between the oil and stock markets: Evidence from the largest oil importers and exporters," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 345-372.
    4. Zhang, Junpeng & Pang, Deliang & Yang, Leijing & Ouyang, Wenjun, 2023. "Risk and synergy of multinational enterprise mergers and acquisitions under the background of the COVID-19 pandemic," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 718-729.
    5. Najam, Hina & Abbas, Jawad & Álvarez-Otero, Susana & Dogan, Eyup & Sial, Muhammad Safdar, 2022. "Towards green recovery: Can banks achieve financial sustainability through income diversification in ASEAN countries?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 522-533.
    6. Emrah Koçak & Umit Bulut & Angeliki N. Menegaki, 2022. "The resilience of green firms in the twirl of COVID‐19: Evidence from S&P500 Carbon Efficiency Index with a Fourier approach," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 32-45, January.
    7. Ema Gusheva & Vincent de Gooyert, 2021. "Can We Have Our Cake and Eat It? A Review of the Debate on Green Recovery from the COVID-19 Crisis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-16, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Carbon emissions; Climate change; Climate policy; COVID-19; Green recovery; Stock returns;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General
    • Q5 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics

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