IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/15522.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Big Three and Corporate Carbon Emissions Around the World

Author

Listed:
  • Ormazabal, Gaizka
  • Azar, José
  • Duro, Miguel
  • Kadach, Igor

Abstract

This paper examines the role of the “Big Three†(i.e., BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street Global Advisors) on the reduction of corporate carbon emissions around the world. Using novel data on engagements of the Big Three with individual firms, we find evidence that the Big Three focus their engagement effort on large firms with high CO2 emissions in which these investors hold a significant stake. Consistent with this engagement influence being effective, we observe a strong and robust negative association between Big Three ownership and subsequent carbon emissions among MSCI index constituents, a pattern that becomes stronger in the later years of the sample period as the three institutions publicly commit to tackle ESG issues.

Suggested Citation

  • Ormazabal, Gaizka & Azar, José & Duro, Miguel & Kadach, Igor, 2020. "The Big Three and Corporate Carbon Emissions Around the World," CEPR Discussion Papers 15522, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:15522
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP15522
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

    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. A. Colin Cameron & Jonah B. Gelbach & Douglas L. Miller, 2008. "Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 414-427, August.
    2. Ertimur, Yonca & Ferri, Fabrizio & Stubben, Stephen R., 2010. "Board of directors' responsiveness to shareholders: Evidence from shareholder proposals," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 53-72, February.
    3. Itzhak Ben-David & Francesco A. Franzoni & Rabih Moussawi, 2019. "An Improved Method to Predict Assignment of Stocks into Russell Indexes," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 19-56, Swiss Finance Institute.
    4. JOSEPH A. McCAHERY & ZACHARIAS SAUTNER & LAURA T. STARKS, 2016. "Behind the Scenes: The Corporate Governance Preferences of Institutional Investors," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(6), pages 2905-2932, December.
    5. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    6. Itzhak Ben‐David & Francesco Franzoni & Rabih Moussawi, 2018. "Do ETFs Increase Volatility?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 73(6), pages 2471-2535, December.
    7. Lucian A. Bebchuk & Scott Hirst, 2019. "Index Funds and the Future of Corporate Governance: Theory, Evidence, and Policy," NBER Working Papers 26543, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Schmidt, Cornelius & Fahlenbrach, Rüdiger, 2017. "Do exogenous changes in passive institutional ownership affect corporate governance and firm value?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(2), pages 285-306.
    9. Yonca Ertimur & Fabrizio Ferri & Volkan Muslu, 2011. "Shareholder Activism and CEO Pay," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(2), pages 535-592.
    10. Karpoff, Jonathan M. & Malatesta, Paul H. & Walkling, Ralph A., 1996. "Corporate governance and shareholder initiatives: Empirical evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 365-395, November.
    11. Appel, Ian R. & Gormley, Todd A. & Keim, Donald B., 2016. "Passive investors, not passive owners," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(1), pages 111-141.
    12. Lucian A. Bebchuk & Scott Hirst, 2019. "The Specter of the Giant Three," NBER Working Papers 25914, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. Thomas Bourveau & François Brochet & Alexandre Garel, 2022. "The Capital Market Consequences of Tenure-Based Voting Rights: Evidence from the Florange Act," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(12), pages 9107-9128, December.
    2. Baines, Joseph & Hager, Sandy Brian, 2022. "From Passive Owners to Planet Savers? Asset Managers, Carbon Majors and the Limits of Sustainable Finance," EconStor Preprints 249674, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    3. Dorsaf Azouz Ghachem & Nadia Basty & Qasim Zureigat, 2022. "Ownership Structure and Carbon Emissions of SMEs: Evidence from OECD Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-16, November.

    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. Azar, José & Duro, Miguel & Kadach, Igor & Ormazabal, Gaizka, 2021. "The Big Three and corporate carbon emissions around the world," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 674-696.
    2. Dasgupta, Amil & Fos, Vyacheslav & Sautner, Zacharias, 2021. "Institutional investors and corporate governance," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112114, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Farizo, Joseph D., 2022. "(Black)Rock the vote: Index funds and opposition to management," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    4. Jiang, George J. & Liu, Chang, 2021. "Getting on board: The monitoring effect of institutional directors," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    5. Fu, Lili & Pan, Liyuan & Wu, Fengyun, 2021. "Does passive investment have a positive governance effect? Evidence from index funds ownership and corporate innovation," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 524-545.
    6. Baig, Ahmed & DeLisle, R. Jared & Zaynutdinova, Gulnara R., 2022. "Index mutual fund ownership and financial reporting quality," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    7. Alessio M. Pacces, 2021. "Will the EU Taxonomy Regulation Foster Sustainable Corporate Governance?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, November.
    8. Wang, Xiaoqiong & Wei, Siqi, 2021. "Does the investment horizon of institutional investors matter for stock liquidity?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    9. Daniel Schmidt & Bastian von Beschwitz, 2022. "Passive Ownership and Short Selling," International Finance Discussion Papers 1365, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    10. Gine, Mireia & Moussawi, Rabih & Sedunov, John, 2017. "Governance mechanisms and effective activism: Evidence from shareholder proposals on poison pills," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 185-202.
    11. Dannhauser, Caitlin D. & Spilker, Harold D., 2023. "The Modern Mutual Fund Family," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(1), pages 1-20.
    12. Coles, Jeffrey L. & Heath, Davidson & Ringgenberg, Matthew C., 2022. "On index investing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(3), pages 665-683.
    13. Benjamin Bennett & René M. Stulz & Zexi Wang, 2020. "Does Joining the S&P 500 Index Hurt Firms?," NBER Working Papers 27593, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Ilya Ivaninskiy & Irina Ivashkovskaya & Joseph A. McCahery, 2023. "Does digitalization mitigate or intensify the principal-agent conflict in a firm?," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 27(3), pages 695-725, September.
    15. Zhang, Bobo & Zhang, Zhou, 2022. "Shining light on corporate political spending: Evidence from shareholder engagements," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    16. Cheung, William Ming Yan & Im, Hyun Joong & Selvam, Srinivasan, 2023. "Stock liquidity and investment efficiency: Evidence from the split-share structure reform in China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    17. Itzhak Ben-David & Francesco A. Franzoni & Rabih Moussawi, 2019. "An Improved Method to Predict Assignment of Stocks into Russell Indexes," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 19-56, Swiss Finance Institute.
    18. Newham, M. & Seldeslachts, J. & Banal-Estanol, A., 2018. "Common Ownership and Market Entry: Evidence from the Pharmaceutical Industry," Working Papers 18/03, Department of Economics, City University London.
    19. Paul M. Guest & Marco Nerino, 2019. "Do Corporate Governance Ratings Change Investor Expectations? Evidence from Announcements by Institutional Shareholder Services," Working Papers wp515, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    20. Lou, Kuo-Ren & Lu, Yang-Kai & Shiu, Cheng-Yi, 2020. "Monitoring role of institutional investors and acquisition performance: Evidence from East Asian markets," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Climate change; Carbon emissions; ESG; Big three; Shareholder activism; Institutional ownership;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cpr:ceprdp:15522. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    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.