The real effects of protecting biodiversity

Amir Akbari, Lilian Ng, Man Duy (Marty) Pham and Jing Yu

Review of Finance, 2026, vol. 30, issue 1, 193-230

Abstract: Protected areas are a central instrument in biodiversity conservation. However, their broader implications for corporate behavior and financial performance remain underexplored. This study examines how proximity to newly designated protected areas shapes establishment-level environmental, operational, and financial outcomes from 1990 to 2021. We find that nearby establishments significantly reduce toxic emissions, driven not by cleaner technologies but by production cutbacks and workforce contraction. Exploratory evidence suggests that heightened regulatory oversight may be one channel that constrains operations and is associated with lower profitability and market value. These results underscore the environmental benefits of conservation but also reveal the material costs imposed on affected firms. As global conservation initiatives expand, our findings show that biodiversity-related regulatory exposure constitutes a material financial risk that should be incorporated into policy design, corporate strategy, and capital allocation decisions.

Keywords: biodiversity; protected areas; regulatory risk; real effects; industrial pollution; spatial finance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G30 Q53 Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/rof/rfaf055 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:revfin:v:30:y:2026:i:1:p:193-230.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Finance is currently edited by Marcin Kacperczyk

More articles in Review of Finance from European Finance Association Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().