IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0205317.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Carbon price volatility: The case of China

Author

Listed:
  • Yinpeng Zhang
  • Zhixin Liu
  • Yingying Xu

Abstract

Based on carbon spot prices selected from seven carbon pilots, we assess the financial performances related to carbon volatility in China on the overall perspective. According to the results, the Chinese carbon market fluctuated severely at the beginning of carbon trading, but has stabilised in general, despite several dramatic changes related to ‘yearly compliance events’. Long-term memory exists in the volatility series. Moreover, asymmetry exists in the Chinese carbon market, and volatility reacts more severely to good news than to bad news. Finally, we discuss our empirical results, and make certain suggestions regarding firms’ awareness, international cooperation and individual investors not only for policy makers in China but also for other developing countries who are contemplating either commencing carbon trading or improving the current market.

Suggested Citation

  • Yinpeng Zhang & Zhixin Liu & Yingying Xu, 2018. "Carbon price volatility: The case of China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(10), pages 1-15, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0205317
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0205317
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0205317
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0205317&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0205317?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chang, Kai & Pei, Ping & Zhang, Chao & Wu, Xin, 2017. "Exploring the price dynamics of CO2 emissions allowances in China's emissions trading scheme pilots," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 213-223.
    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. Chevallier, Julien, 2011. "Detecting instability in the volatility of carbon prices," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 99-110, January.
    4. Oestreich, A. Marcel & Tsiakas, Ilias, 2015. "Carbon emissions and stock returns: Evidence from the EU Emissions Trading Scheme," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 294-308.
    5. James B. Bushnell & Howard Chong & Erin T. Mansur, 2013. "Profiting from Regulation: Evidence from the European Carbon Market," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(4), pages 78-106, November.
    6. Benz, Eva & Trück, Stefan, 2009. "Modeling the price dynamics of CO2 emission allowances," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 4-15, January.
    7. Kwiatkowski, Denis & Phillips, Peter C. B. & Schmidt, Peter & Shin, Yongcheol, 1992. "Testing the null hypothesis of stationarity against the alternative of a unit root : How sure are we that economic time series have a unit root?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1-3), pages 159-178.
    8. George A. Akerlof, 2009. "How Human Psychology Drives the Economy and Why It Matters," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1175-1175.
    9. Feng, Zhen-Hua & Zou, Le-Le & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2011. "Carbon price volatility: Evidence from EU ETS," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 590-598, March.
    10. ZhongXiang Zhang, 2016. "Making the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy: The Key Challenges for China," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(2), pages 187-202, May.
    11. Chevallier, Julien & Le Pen, Yannick & Sévi, Benoît, 2011. "Options introduction and volatility in the EU ETS," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 855-880.
    12. Bollerslev, Tim, 1986. "Generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 307-327, April.
    13. Zhao, Xin-gang & Wu, Lei & Li, Ang, 2017. "Research on the efficiency of carbon trading market in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1-8.
    14. Schwert, G William, 1990. "Stock Volatility and the Crash of '87," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 3(1), pages 77-102.
    15. Lee, Dongin & Schmidt, Peter, 1996. "On the power of the KPSS test of stationarity against fractionally-integrated alternatives," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 285-302, July.
    16. Yu, Lean & Li, Jingjing & Tang, Ling & Wang, Shuai, 2015. "Linear and nonlinear Granger causality investigation between carbon market and crude oil market: A multi-scale approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 300-311.
    17. repec:dau:papers:123456789/6793 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Eugenia Sanin, María & Violante, Francesco & Mansanet-Bataller, María, 2015. "Understanding volatility dynamics in the EU-ETS market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 321-331.
    19. Zhao, Xin-gang & Jiang, Gui-wu & Nie, Dan & Chen, Hao, 2016. "How to improve the market efficiency of carbon trading: A perspective of China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1229-1245.
    20. Moreno, Blanca & Pereira da Silva, Patrícia, 2016. "How do Spanish polluting sectors' stock market returns react to European Union allowances prices? A panel data approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 240-250.
    21. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4222 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Nelson, Daniel B, 1991. "Conditional Heteroskedasticity in Asset Returns: A New Approach," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(2), pages 347-370, March.
    23. Seifert, Jan & Uhrig-Homburg, Marliese & Wagner, Michael, 2008. "Dynamic behavior of CO2 spot prices," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 180-194, September.
    24. Bollerslev, Tim & Ole Mikkelsen, Hans, 1996. "Modeling and pricing long memory in stock market volatility," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 151-184, July.
    25. Dickey, David A & Fuller, Wayne A, 1981. "Likelihood Ratio Statistics for Autoregressive Time Series with a Unit Root," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(4), pages 1057-1072, June.
    26. Ibrahim, Boulis Maher & Kalaitzoglou, Iordanis Angelos, 2016. "Why do carbon prices and price volatility change?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 76-94.
    27. Yang, Lin & Li, Fengyu & Zhang, Xian, 2016. "Chinese companies’ awareness and perceptions of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS): Evidence from a national survey in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 254-265.
    28. Cong, Ren & Lo, Alex Y., 2017. "Emission trading and carbon market performance in Shenzhen, China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 414-425.
    29. Alberola, Emilie & Chevallier, Julien & Cheze, Benoi^t, 2008. "Price drivers and structural breaks in European carbon prices 2005-2007," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 787-797, February.
    30. repec:dau:papers:123456789/5110 is not listed on IDEAS
    31. Alex Y. Lo, 2016. "Challenges to the development of carbon markets in China," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(1), pages 109-124, January.
    32. Boulis Maher Ibrahim & Iordanis Angelos Kalaitzoglou, 2016. "Why do carbon prices and price volatility change?," Post-Print hal-01267062, HAL.
    33. Wu, Libo & Qian, Haoqi & Li, Jin, 2014. "Advancing the experiment to reality: Perspectives on Shanghai pilot carbon emissions trading scheme," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 22-30.
    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. Zhao, Lili & Wen, Fenghua, 2022. "Risk-return relationship and structural breaks: Evidence from China carbon market," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 481-492.
    2. Xinyu Wu & Xuebao Yin & Xueting Mei, 2022. "Forecasting the Volatility of European Union Allowance Futures with Climate Policy Uncertainty Using the EGARCH-MIDAS Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-13, April.
    3. Fan, Xinghua & Lv, Xiangxiang & Yin, Jiuli & Tian, Lixin & Liang, Jiaochen, 2019. "Multifractality and market efficiency of carbon emission trading market: Analysis using the multifractal detrended fluctuation technique," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    4. Yan, Kai & Zhang, Wei & Shen, Dehua, 2020. "Stylized facts of the carbon emission market in China," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 555(C).
    5. Yunhe Cheng & Beibei Hu, 2022. "Forecasting Regional Carbon Prices in China Based on Secondary Decomposition and a Hybrid Kernel-Based Extreme Learning Machine," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-18, May.
    6. Yaxue Yan & Weijuan Liang & Banban Wang & Xiaoling Zhang, 2023. "Spillover effect among independent carbon markets: evidence from China’s carbon markets," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 3065-3093, October.
    7. Wang, Minke & Wu, Jiang & Kafa, Nadine & Klibi, Walid, 2020. "Carbon emission-compliance green location-inventory problem with demand and carbon price uncertainties," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    8. Hao Chen & Zhixin Liu & Yinpeng Zhang & You Wu, 2020. "The Linkages of Carbon Spot-Futures: Evidence from EU-ETS in the Third Phase," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-18, March.

    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. Yan, Kai & Zhang, Wei & Shen, Dehua, 2020. "Stylized facts of the carbon emission market in China," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 555(C).
    2. Chang, Kai & Chen, Rongda & Chevallier, Julien, 2018. "Market fragmentation, liquidity measures and improvement perspectives from China's emissions trading scheme pilots," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 249-260.
    3. Cong, Ren & Lo, Alex Y., 2017. "Emission trading and carbon market performance in Shenzhen, China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 414-425.
    4. Federico Galán-Valdivieso & Elena Villar-Rubio & María-Dolores Huete-Morales, 2018. "The erratic behaviour of the EU ETS on the path towards consolidation and price stability," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 18(5), pages 689-706, October.
    5. Friedrich, Marina & Mauer, Eva-Maria & Pahle, Michael & Tietjen, Oliver, 2020. "From fundamentals to financial assets: the evolution of understanding price formation in the EU ETS," EconStor Preprints 196150, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, revised 2020.
    6. Tan, Xue-Ping & Wang, Xin-Yu, 2017. "Dependence changes between the carbon price and its fundamentals: A quantile regression approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 306-325.
    7. Demiralay, Sercan & Gencer, Hatice Gaye & Bayraci, Selcuk, 2022. "Carbon credit futures as an emerging asset: Hedging, diversification and downside risks," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    8. Wang, Xiao-Qing & Su, Chi-Wei & Lobonţ, Oana-Ramona & Li, Hao & Nicoleta-Claudia, Moldovan, 2022. "Is China's carbon trading market efficient? Evidence from emissions trading scheme pilots," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    9. Fang, Sheng & Lu, Xinsheng & Li, Jianfeng & Qu, Ling, 2018. "Multifractal detrended cross-correlation analysis of carbon emission allowance and stock returns," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 509(C), pages 551-566.
    10. Fan, Xinghua & Li, Xuxia & Yin, Jiuli & Tian, Lixin & Liang, Jiaochen, 2019. "Similarity and heterogeneity of price dynamics across China’s regional carbon markets: A visibility graph network approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C), pages 739-746.
    11. Guo, Li-Yang & Feng, Chao, 2021. "Are there spillovers among China's pilots for carbon emission allowances trading?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    12. Duan, Kun & Ren, Xiaohang & Shi, Yukun & Mishra, Tapas & Yan, Cheng, 2021. "The marginal impacts of energy prices on carbon price variations: Evidence from a quantile-on-quantile approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    13. Vlad-Cosmin Bulai & Alexandra Horobet & Oana Cristina Popovici & Lucian Belascu & Sofia Adriana Dumitrescu, 2021. "A VaR-Based Methodology for Assessing Carbon Price Risk across European Union Economic Sectors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-21, December.
    14. Byun, Suk Joon & Cho, Hangjun, 2013. "Forecasting carbon futures volatility using GARCH models with energy volatilities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 207-221.
    15. Fagiani, Riccardo & Hakvoort, Rudi, 2014. "The role of regulatory uncertainty in certificate markets: A case study of the Swedish/Norwegian market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 608-618.
    16. Alexander Zeitlberger & Alexander Brauneis, 2016. "Modeling carbon spot and futures price returns with GARCH and Markov switching GARCH models," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 24(1), pages 149-176, March.
    17. Song, Yazhi & Liu, Tiansen & Liang, Dapeng & Li, Yin & Song, Xiaoqiu, 2019. "A Fuzzy Stochastic Model for Carbon Price Prediction Under the Effect of Demand-related Policy in China's Carbon Market," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 253-265.
    18. Chang, Kai & Pei, Ping & Zhang, Chao & Wu, Xin, 2017. "Exploring the price dynamics of CO2 emissions allowances in China's emissions trading scheme pilots," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 213-223.
    19. Zhao, Lili & Wen, Fenghua & Wang, Xiong, 2020. "Interaction among China carbon emission trading markets: Nonlinear Granger causality and time-varying effect," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    20. Zhou, Kaile & Li, Yiwen, 2019. "Influencing factors and fluctuation characteristics of China’s carbon emission trading price," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 524(C), pages 459-474.

    More about this item

    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:plo:pone00:0205317. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.