Corporate Decarbonization under Financial Constraints: International Evidence

Corporate Decarbonization under Financial Constraints: International Evidence

Lilian Ng, Xiaoqiong Wang, Jing Yu

Series number :

Serial Number: 
877/2023

Date posted :

February 10 2023

Last revised :

February 10 2023
SSRN Share

Keywords

  • climate change • 
  • Financial Constraints • 
  • Carbon Decarbonization • 
  • multinational corporations • 
  • Sustainability

Climate change is the biggest environmental challenge facing the world today, and corporate commitments to decarbonization are vital to combat this crisis. Our study investigates whether and how firms reduce their carbon footprints under financial resource constraints.

Analyzing firms across 51 countries suggests that firms are less likely to decarbonize and implement carbon abatement strategies when facing financial constraints. However, environmental regulatory stringency, while not government policies that subsidize corporate green investment, can mitigate such adverse effects. Unlike domestic companies, multinational corporations, especially with limited financial resources, can avert strict environmental regulations by shifting their emission-intensive activity to foreign subsidiaries in countries with weaker environmental regulations. Finally, our results suggest that financially-constrained emitters have limited access to international equity and bond markets.

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Authors

Professor
Real name:
Lilian Ng
Research Member
Schulich School of Business, York University
Real name:
Xiaoqiong Wang
Real name:
Jing Yu