IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reveco/v88y2023icp1104-1121.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Carbon intensity, default risk, and investors’ attention to environment: Evidence from South Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Park, Dojoon
  • Kang, Yong Joo
  • Lee, Jiyoon

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between carbon intensity and default risk for South Korean firms and examine the role of investor attentiveness to environmental issues on this relationship. Using carbon emissions and Merton's distance-to-default, we find that carbon intensity is significantly negatively associated with the distance-to-default and that the negative association strengthens when foreign ownership is high. Furthermore, we find that default risk for firms subject to the South Korean emissions trading system increased after its adoption. Our results are robust to different default risk proxies and highlights the negative impact carbon intensity has on default risk for South Korean firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Park, Dojoon & Kang, Yong Joo & Lee, Jiyoon, 2023. "Carbon intensity, default risk, and investors’ attention to environment: Evidence from South Korea," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 1104-1121.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reveco:v:88:y:2023:i:c:p:1104-1121
    DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2023.07.023
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056023002332
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.iref.2023.07.023?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Su-Yol Lee & Dong-Kwon Choi, 2021. "Does Corporate Carbon Risk Management Mitigate the Cost of Debt Capital? Evidence from South Korean Climate Change Policies," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(7), pages 2138-2151, May.
    3. Darwin Choi & Zhenyu Gao & Wenxi Jiang, 2020. "Attention to Global Warming," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(3), pages 1112-1145.
    4. Sudheer Chava, 2014. "Environmental Externalities and Cost of Capital," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(9), pages 2223-2247, September.
    5. 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.
    6. Sreedhar T. Bharath & Tyler Shumway, 2008. "Forecasting Default with the Merton Distance to Default Model," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(3), pages 1339-1369, May.
    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. Zhang, Yunhan & Li, Yan & Zhao, Wanli & Ji, Qiang, 2024. "Climate risk performance and returns integration of Chinese listed energy companies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).

    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. Chen, Zhenzhu & Li, Li & Tang, Yao, 2024. "Weather, credit, and economic fluctuations: Evidence from China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 406-422.
    2. Pástor, Ľuboš & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2021. "Sustainable investing in equilibrium," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 550-571.
    3. Pástor, Ľuboš & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2022. "Dissecting green returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 403-424.
    4. Atawnah, Nader & Hossain, Md Zakir & Al Mamun, Md & Badarin, Louy, 2024. "Does product market competition affect corporate waste management? International evidence," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    5. Ricardo Gimeno & Clara I. González, 2022. "The role of a green factor in stock prices. When Fama & French go green," Working Papers 2207, Banco de España.
    6. Daewoung Choi & Yong Kyu Gam & Hojong Shin, 2023. "Environmental reputation and bank liquidity: Evidence from climate transition," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(7-8), pages 1274-1304, July.
    7. Ferdous, Lutfa Tilat & Atawnah, Nader & Yeboah, Richard & Zhou, Yifan, 2024. "Firm-level climate risk and accounting conservatism: International evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PC).
    8. Reghezza, Alessio & Altunbas, Yener & Marques-Ibanez, David & Rodriguez d’Acri, Costanza & Spaggiari, Martina, 2022. "Do banks fuel climate change?," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    9. Li, Jianfeng & Yao, Xiaoyang & Wang, Hui & Le, Wei, 2024. "Hedging the climate change risks of China's brown assets: Green assets or precious metals?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    10. Mbanyele, William & Huang, Hongyun & Muchenje, Linda T. & Zhao, Jun, 2024. "How does climate regulatory risk influence labor employment decisions? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    11. Chatjuthamard, Pattanaporn & Mook Lee, Sang & Kim, Young S. & Jiraporn, Pornsit & Potosky, Denise, 2024. "Climate change and shareholder value: Evidence from textual analysis and Trump’s unexpected victory," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    12. Ji, Qiang & Ma, Dandan & Zhai, Pengxiang & Fan, Ying & Zhang, Dayong, 2024. "Global climate policy uncertainty and financial markets," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    13. Nguyen, Quyen & Diaz-Rainey, Ivan & Kuruppuarachchi, Duminda, 2023. "In search of climate distress risk," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    14. Mbanyele, William & Muchenje, Linda Tinofirei, 2022. "Climate change exposure, risk management and corporate social responsibility: Cross-country evidence," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    15. Nguyen, Justin Hung & Phan, Hieu V., 2020. "Carbon risk and corporate capital structure," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    16. Okimoto, Tatsuyoshi & Takaoka, Sumiko, 2024. "Credit default swaps and corporate carbon emissions in Japan," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    17. Gong, Xu & Song, Yijie & Fu, Chengbo & Li, Huijing, 2023. "Climate risk and stock performance of fossil fuel companies: An international analysis," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    18. Drudi, Francesco & Moench, Emanuel & Holthausen, Cornelia & Weber, Pierre-François & Ferrucci, Gianluigi & Setzer, Ralph & Adao, Bernardino & Dées, Stéphane & Alogoskoufis, Spyros & Téllez, Mar Delgad, 2021. "Climate change and monetary policy in the euro area," Occasional Paper Series 271, European Central Bank.
    19. Tang, Ning & Chang, Hao-Wen & Lin, Chih-Yung & Lu, Chien-Lin, 2024. "Public's evaluation of ESG and credit default swap: Evidence from East Asian countries," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    20. Eom, Yunsung & Kang, Young Dae & Sohn, Wook, 2024. "Is the Korean green premium in equilibrium?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 245-260.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Carbon intensity; Carbon emissions; Default risk; Distance to default; Investor attention;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

    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:reveco:v:88:y:2023:i:c:p:1104-1121. 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/inca/620165 .

    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.