Sustainable investing in times of crisis: evidence from bond holdings and the COVID-19 pandemic

Serena Fatica and Roberto Panzica ()
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Roberto Panzica: European Commission, https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en

No 2021-07, JRC Working Papers in Economics and Finance from Joint Research Centre, European Commission

Abstract: Using data on institutional investors' bond holdings, we investigate the resilience of green bonds to the COVID-19 shock in a difference-in-differences framework. We find that during the COVID outbreak green bonds experience lower sales, on average, while in normal times no significant differences emerge compared with ordinary bonds. The result is robust across different investor classes and is not driven by those that have a longer-term investment horizon. Furthermore, we find that sustainability-oriented funds sell less of green bonds than their peers without a sustainability mandate. We also document that the ownership of green fixed income securities is more concentrated than that of comparable conventional bonds, and that concentration has increased in the first quarter of 2020.

Keywords: Sustainable finance; climate change; green bonds; institutional investors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G12 G20 Q52 Q53 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51 pages
Date: 2021-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban, nep-ene, nep-env and nep-ore
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published by the European Commission, 2021

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Journal Article: Sustainable investing in times of crisis: Evidence from bond holdings and the COVID-19 pandemic (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jrs:wpaper:202107

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