IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v92y2026ics1544612326001297.html

Climate vulnerability and market volatility: Evidence from European firms

Author

Listed:
  • Enriquez-Perales, Sarela
  • García-Gómez, Conrado Diego
  • Díez-Esteban, José María

Abstract

This study examines the association between country-level climate vulnerability and firm-level stock return volatility in Europe. Using panel data on 490 listed firms across 17 European countries from 2013 to 2022, we find that firms located in more climate-vulnerable countries exhibit significantly higher market volatility. The results are robust across alternative measures, fixed-effects specifications, and endogeneity checks. We further show that this relationship is amplified for financially constrained firms when constraints are measured using the Kaplan–Zingales index. Overall, the findings suggest that climate vulnerability primarily manifests as heightened market uncertainty and that financial frictions play a key role in transmitting macro-level climate risk to firm-level market volatility.

Suggested Citation

  • Enriquez-Perales, Sarela & García-Gómez, Conrado Diego & Díez-Esteban, José María, 2026. "Climate vulnerability and market volatility: Evidence from European firms," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:92:y:2026:i:c:s1544612326001297
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2026.109598
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612326001297
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2026.109598?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bernanke, Ben S. & Gertler, Mark & Gilchrist, Simon, 1999. "The financial accelerator in a quantitative business cycle framework," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 21, pages 1341-1393, Elsevier.
    2. Blau, Benjamin M., 2017. "Economic freedom and crashes in financial markets," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 33-46.
    3. Adams, Renée B. & Ferreira, Daniel, 2009. "Women in the boardroom and their impact on governance and performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 291-309, November.
    4. Barinov, Alexander, 2023. "Profitability anomaly and aggregate volatility risk," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    5. Selahattin Tolga Er & Ender Demir & Conrado Diego Garcia-Gomez, 2025. "Climate vulnerability and capital investments in tourism," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 176-181, January.
    6. Novy-Marx, Robert, 2013. "The other side of value: The gross profitability premium," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 1-28.
    7. Harjoat S & Christian Dorion & Alexandre Jeanneret & Michael Weber & Stijn Van, 2023. "High Inflation: Low Default Risk and Low Equity Valuations," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 36(3), pages 1192-1252.
    8. Jae Sim & Egon Zakrajsek & Simon Gilchrist, 2010. "Uncertainty, Financial Frictions, and Investment Dynamics," 2010 Meeting Papers 1285, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    9. Philipp Krueger & Zacharias Sautner & Laura T Starks, 2020. "The Importance of Climate Risks for Institutional Investors," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(3), pages 1067-1111.
    10. Bengt Holmstrom & Jean Tirole, 1997. "Financial Intermediation, Loanable Funds, and The Real Sector," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(3), pages 663-691.
    11. Andrew Ang & Robert J. Hodrick & Yuhang Xing & Xiaoyan Zhang, 2006. "The Cross‐Section of Volatility and Expected Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(1), pages 259-299, February.
    12. Francis A. Longstaff & Jun Pan & Lasse H. Pedersen & Kenneth J. Singleton, 2011. "How Sovereign Is Sovereign Credit Risk?," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 75-103, April.
    13. Ericsson, Jan & Huang, Xiao & Mazzotta, Stefano, 2016. "Leverage and asymmetric volatility: The firm-level evidence," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(PA), pages 1-21.
    14. Richard Blundell & Stephen Bond, 2000. "GMM Estimation with persistent panel data: an application to production functions," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 321-340.
    15. Stephen R. Bond, 2002. "Dynamic panel data models: a guide to micro data methods and practice," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 1(2), pages 141-162, August.
    16. Marcel Fratzscher & Roland Straub, 2013. "Asset Prices, News Shocks, and the Trade Balance," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 45(7), pages 1211-1251, October.
    17. Toni M. Whited & Guojun Wu, 2006. "Financial Constraints Risk," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(2), pages 531-559.
    18. Stephen Bond, 2002. "Dynamic panel data models: a guide to microdata methods and practice," CeMMAP working papers 09/02, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    19. Viral V Acharya & Robert Engle & Maximilian Jager & Sascha Steffen, 2024. "Why Did Bank Stocks Crash during COVID-19?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 37(9), pages 2627-2684.
    20. Alex Chinco & Samuel M. Hartzmark & Abigail B. Sussman, 2022. "A New Test of Risk Factor Relevance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(4), pages 2183-2238, August.
    21. Lamont, Owen & Polk, Christopher & Saa-Requejo, Jesus, 2001. "Financial Constraints and Stock Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(2), pages 529-554.
    22. Douglas Staiger & James H. Stock, 1997. "Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(3), pages 557-586, May.
    23. Yufeng Chen & Simin Shen & Chuwen Wang, 2025. "Climate risks and stock market volatility spillover: new insights from wavelet and causality methods," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 1-32, June.
    24. Bolton, Patrick & Kacperczyk, Marcin, 2021. "Do investors care about carbon risk?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 517-549.
    25. Guanming He & Helen Mengbing Ren, 2023. "Are financially constrained firms susceptible to a stock price crash?," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(6), pages 612-637, April.
    26. Söhnke M. Bartram & Gregory Brown & René M. Stulz, 2012. "Why Are U.S. Stocks More Volatile?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(4), pages 1329-1370, August.
    27. Shear, Falik & Ashraf, Badar Nadeem & Butt, Shazaib, 2023. "Sensing the heat: Climate change vulnerability and foreign direct investment inflows," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    28. Rampini, Adriano A. & Viswanathan, S., 2013. "Collateral and capital structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 466-492.
    29. Kahn, Matthew E. & Mohaddes, Kamiar & Ng, Ryan N.C. & Pesaran, M. Hashem & Raissi, Mehdi & Yang, Jui-Chung, 2021. "Long-term macroeconomic effects of climate change: A cross-country analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    30. Giancarlo Corsetti & Keith Kuester & André Meier & Gernot J. Müller, 2013. "Sovereign Risk, Fiscal Policy, and Macroeconomic Stability," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0, pages 99-132, February.
    31. Sudheer Chava, 2014. "Environmental Externalities and Cost of Capital," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(9), pages 2223-2247, September.
    32. Adrian, Tobias, 2017. "Risk Management and Regulation," CEPR Discussion Papers 12422, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    33. Emambakhsh, Tina & Giuzio, Margherita & Mingarelli, Luca & Salakhova, Dilyara & Spaggiari, Martina, 2022. "Climate-related risks to financial stability," Financial Stability Review, European Central Bank, vol. 1.
    34. Pástor, Ľuboš & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2022. "Dissecting green returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 403-424.
    35. Binder, Carola & Ozturk, Ezgi & Sheng, Xuguang Simon, 2025. "The effects of inflation uncertainty on firms and the macroeconomy," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    36. Jawad M Addoum & David T Ng & Ariel Ortiz-Bobea & Harrison Hong, 2020. "Temperature Shocks and Establishment Sales," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(3), pages 1331-1366.
    37. di Mauro, Filippo & Fornari, Fabio & Mannucci, Dario, 2011. "Stock market firm-level information and real economic activity," Working Paper Series 1366, European Central Bank.
    38. Pástor, Ľuboš & Veronesi, Pietro, 2013. "Political uncertainty and risk premia," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(3), pages 520-545.
    39. Bekaert, Geert & Bergbrant, Mikael & Kassa, Haimanot, 2025. "Expected idiosyncratic volatility," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    40. Herskovic, Bernard & Kelly, Bryan & Lustig, Hanno & Van Nieuwerburgh, Stijn, 2016. "The common factor in idiosyncratic volatility: Quantitative asset pricing implications," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(2), pages 249-283.
    41. Hong, Harrison & Li, Frank Weikai & Xu, Jiangmin, 2019. "Climate risks and market efficiency," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 208(1), pages 265-281.
    42. Charles Cao & Timothy Simin & Jing Zhao, 2008. "Can Growth Options Explain the Trend in Idiosyncratic Risk?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(6), pages 2599-2633, November.
    43. Stephen Bond, 2002. "Dynamic panel data models: a guide to microdata methods and practice," CeMMAP working papers CWP09/02, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    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. Basha, Shabeen Afsar & Benkraiem, Ramzi & Ben-Nasr, Hamdi & Masum, Abdullah-Al, 2025. "Does political risk exacerbate climate risk? Firm-level evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 104(PA).
    2. Tristan Jourde & Arthur Stalla-Bourdillon, 2026. "Environmental preferences and sector valuations," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 162(1), pages 45-85, February.
    3. Xu, Weidong & Zhu, Danyu & Gao, Xin & Xing, Lu & Li, Donghui, 2025. "The price of realized extreme climate events in the implied cost of equity capital: International evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    4. Nguyen, Minh Nhat & Liu, Ruipeng & Li, Youwei, 2025. "Performance of energy ETFs and climate risks," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    5. Venturini, Alessio, 2022. "Climate change, risk factors and stock returns: A review of the literature," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    6. Falavigna, Greta & Ippoliti, Roberto, 2023. "SMEs’ behavior under financial constraints: An empirical investigation on the legal environment and the substitution effect with tax arrears," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    7. Di Tommaso, Caterina & Foglia, Matteo & Pacelli, Vincenzo, 2025. "The impact of biodiversity score on the European firm’s performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    8. Shackleton, Mark & Yan, Jiali & Yao, Yaqiong, 2022. "What drives a firm's ES performance? Evidence from stock returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    9. Bartram, Söhnke M. & Brown, Gregory W. & Stulz, René M., 2016. "Why does idiosyncratic risk increase with market risk?," CFS Working Paper Series 533, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    10. Banerjee, Pradip & Bose, Sudipta & Dhole, Sandip & Truong, Cameron, 2025. "Greening up their act: Corporate carbon emissions reduction in response to political risk," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    11. Ashrafee Hossain & Abdullah‐al Masum & Samir Saadi & Ramzi Benkraiem & Nirmol Das, 2023. "Firm-Level Climate Change Risk and CEO Equity Incentives," Post-Print hal-04434397, HAL.
    12. Syed Manzur Quader, 2017. "Differential effect of liquidity constraints on firm growth," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(1), pages 20-29, January.
    13. Zhang, Dongyang & Liu, Deqiang, 2017. "Determinants of the capital structure of Chinese non-listed enterprises: Is TFP efficient?," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 179-202.
    14. Zhou, Peng & Mo, Lingyu & Tan, Changchun & Wu, Huaqing, 2025. "Carbon regulatory risk exposure in the bond market: A quasi-natural experiment in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    15. Carina Cuculiza & Alok Kumar & Wei Xin & Chendi Zhang, 2026. "Temperature Sensitivity, Mispricing, and Predictable Returns," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 72(3), pages 1918-1958, March.
    16. Adhikari, Hari P. & More, Deepak G. & Sah, Nilesh B., 2025. "Climate change exposure and short-termism: Evidence from net trade credit," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    17. Javadi, Siamak & Masum, Abdullah-Al, 2021. "The impact of climate change on the cost of bank loans," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    18. Rey Đặng & L.’Hocine Houanti & Michel Simioni & Jean-Michel Sahut, 2025. "The role of endogeneity in the relationship between board gender diversity and corporate social performance: evidence from a control function method," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 347(1), pages 333-365, April.
    19. Lee H. Seltzer & Laura Starks & Qifei Zhu, 2022. "Climate Regulatory Risk and Corporate Bonds," NBER Working Papers 29994, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Tristan Jourde & Arthur Stalla-Bourdillon, 2024. "Environmental preferences and sector valuations," Post-Print halshs-04948464, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:eee:finlet:v:92:y:2026:i:c:s1544612326001297. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    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.