Shareholders and the environment: a review of four decades of academic research

Gunther Capelle-Blancard, Adrien Desroziers and Bert Scholtens

Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) from HAL

Abstract: Abstract We provide a synthesis of four decades of empirical research regarding the reaction of shareholders to environmental events. This literature is at the crossroads of finance, environmental economics, management and corporate social responsibility (CSR). To set the stage, we first provide an account of the Brumadinho ecological disaster that occurred in Brazil on January 25th, 2019. Second, we provide a critical review of more than 100 event studies. These papers cover a diverse set of events, such as industrial accidents, public disclosure programs, legal actions following environmental violations, changes in environmental regulation, environmental news, and corporate initiatives. This review makes four contributions. First is the synthesis of a large strand of literature in a structured setting, so as to be readily handled by both experts and non-experts. Second is the observation that stock market penalties in the event of environmental concerns are likely to be quite low: on average there is a (temporary) drop in the excess stock market return to events that are harmful to the environment of about 2% and the median is −0.6%. Third is to highlight the limits of CSR as a business strategy towards a sustainable society. Fourth is to provide an open access bibliographic database.

Keywords: CSR; industrial accidents; public disclosure; lawsuits; ESG news; policy; event study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-12-14
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://paris1.hal.science/hal-03526647
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Published in Environmental Research Letters, 2021, 16 (12), pp.123005. ⟨10.1088/1748-9326/ac3c6e⟩

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Working Paper: Shareholders and the environment: a review of four decades of academic research (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:cesptp:hal-03526647

DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ac3c6e

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