Environmentally Responsible and Conventional Market Indices’ Reaction to Natural and Anthropogenic Adversity: A Comparative Analysis

Christos Kollias and Stephanos Papadamou

Journal of Business Ethics, 2016, vol. 138, issue 3, No 6, 493-505

Abstract: Abstract It is widely claimed that climate change has increased the magnitude and the frequency of natural phenomena such as storms, droughts, and floods with the concomitant costs in terms of damages and victims. This paper using weekly data from global stock market indices in a Fama–French model, examines how and to what extent market agents and investors react to such events. As a yardstick for comparison purposes, the possible market impact of industrial accidents is also incorporated and examined in the empirical investigation. The study uses in a comparative approach the STOXX Global ESG Environmental Leaders index and the STOXX Global index diversified across 1800 top companies. Results reported herein seem to indicate that natural and anthropogenic adversity have no immediate impact on the stock indices, while wildfires have an immediate reduction impact on market risk in the case of the ESG Environmental Leaders index. Moreover, wildfires and industrial accidents appear to cause a significant reduction of systematic risk over the next week following the incident. However, the magnitude of the effect is higher in the case of the ESG Environmental Leaders stock index. Finally, the effect on systematic risk by industrial accidents is temporarily without any lasting imprint.

Keywords: Environmentally responsible investments; Behavioral finance; Natural disasters (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G10 G14 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2608-2

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