IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/safewp/308042.html

Out of sight, out of mind: Divestments and the global reallocation of pollutive assets

Author

Listed:
  • Berg, Tobias
  • Ma, Lin
  • Streitz, Daniel

Abstract

We analyze firms' carbon reduction strategies worldwide and identify one key channel: large, primarily European firms facing increased investor pressure divest pollutive assets to firms that are less in the limelight. There is no evidence of increased engagement in other emission reduction activities. We estimate that 369 million metric tons (mt) of CO2e are reallocated via divestments in the post-Paris Agreement period, shifting pollutive assets from Europe to the rest of the world. Our results indicate significant global asset reallocation effects and imply that responsible investors who want to truly invest responsibly need to monitor firms' divestment strategies closely.

Suggested Citation

  • Berg, Tobias & Ma, Lin & Streitz, Daniel, 2024. "Out of sight, out of mind: Divestments and the global reallocation of pollutive assets," SAFE Working Paper Series 436, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:safewp:308042
    DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4368113
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/308042/1/1912785854.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2139/ssrn.4368113?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. Itzhak Ben-David & Yeejin Jang & Stefanie Kleimeier & Michael Viehs, 2021. "Exporting pollution: where do multinational firms emit CO2? [Effects of air quality regulations on polluting industries]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 36(107), pages 377-437.
    2. Comello, Stephen & Reichelstein, Julia & Reichelstein, Stefan, 2021. "Corporate Carbon Reduction Pledges: An Effective Tool to Mitigate Climate Change?," Research Papers 3955, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    3. Frederik Dahlmann & Layla Branicki & Stephen Brammer, 2019. "Managing Carbon Aspirations: The Influence of Corporate Climate Change Targets on Environmental Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 1-24, August.
    4. Rahel Aichele & Gabriel Felbermayr, 2015. "Kyoto and Carbon Leakage: An Empirical Analysis of the Carbon Content of Bilateral Trade," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(1), pages 104-115, March.
    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. Berg, Tobias & Ma, Lin & Streitz, Daniel, 2026. "Out of sight, out of mind: Divestments and the global reallocation of pollutive assets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    2. Misch, Florian & Wingender, Philippe, 2024. "Revisiting carbon leakage," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    3. Zola Berger‐Schmitz & Douglas George & Cameron Hindal & Richard Perkins & Maria Travaille, 2023. "What explains firms' net zero adoption, strategy and response?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 5583-5601, December.
    4. Wang, Hanyi, 2025. "Carbon leakage through supply chain adjustments," IDOS Discussion Papers 10/2025, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    5. Keilbach, Hendrik & Koetter, Michael & Ludolph, Melina & Woebbeking, Fabian, 2026. "The limits of local laws in global supply chains: Cutting ties or “edutrading” procurement partners?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    6. Fabio Antoniou & Panos Hatzipanayotou & Nikos Tsakiris, 2024. "Regulatory Stringency and Emission Leakage Mitigation," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 87(6), pages 1407-1424, June.
    7. Comello, Stephen & Reichelstein, Julia & Reichelstein, Stefan, 2023. "Corporate carbon reporting: Improving transparency and accountability," ZEW Discussion Papers 23-026, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    8. Wanner,Joschka & WATABE,Yuta, 2025. "Multinational Production, Trade, and Carbon Emissions," IDE Discussion Papers 965, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    9. Sining Song & Yan Dong & Thomas Kull & Craig Carter & Kefeng Xu, 2023. "Supply chain leakage of greenhouse gas emissions and supplier innovation," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 32(3), pages 882-903, March.
    10. Patrick Bolton & Marcin Kacperczyk, 2026. "Firm Commitments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 72(3), pages 2134-2167, March.
    11. Yen Nhi Nguyen, 2023. "The Effect of Offshoring on Firm Emissions," Working Papers 2315, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    12. Bolz, Simon J. & Naumann, Fabrice & Richter, Philipp M., 2026. "Unilateral environmental policy and offshoring," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    13. Cristina Angelico & Enrico Bernardini, 2025. "Banks' carbon pledges: amazing or a maze?," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 906, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    14. Dechezleprêtre, Antoine & Gennaioli, Caterina & Martin, Ralf & Muûls, Mirabelle & Stoerk, Thomas, 2022. "Searching for carbon leaks in multinational companies," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    15. Lester, Rebecca & Olbert, Marcel, 2025. "Firms’ real and reporting responses to taxation: A review," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2).
    16. Gipper, Brandon & Sequeira, Fiona & Shi, Shawn X., 2026. "Carbon accounting quality: Measurement and the role of assurance," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(2).
    17. Chen, Junlong & Han, Zuli & Liu, Jiali, 2025. "The R&D and sharing of emission reduction technology with uncertainty and carbon tax under inter-chain competition," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    18. Guerrero-Escobar, Santiago & Hernández-del-Valle, Gerardo & Hernández-Vega, Marco, 2025. "The stock market effects of committing and setting GHG targets: evidence from the science-based targets initiative," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    19. Tudi, Tayier & Deng, Xinghua & Chen, Lingqing & Ni, Mingjie, 2025. "Unraveling the nexus between emissions trading and corporate carbon outsourcing: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 1612-1632.
    20. Yang Zhang & Wenlong Li & Jiawen Sun & Haidong Zhao & Haiying Lin, 2023. "A Research Paradigm for Industrial Spatial Layout Optimization and High-Quality Development in The Context of Carbon Peaking," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-30, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

    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:zbw:safewp:308042. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/csafede.html .

    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.