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Some Don't Like It Hot: Bank Depositors and NGO Campaigns Against Brown Banks

Clément Mazet-Sonilhac and Jean-Stéphane Mésonnier
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Clément Mazet-Sonilhac: Bocconi University [Milan, Italy]

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Abstract: We study whether households respond to claims that their bank finances global warming. We leverage new data on NGO campaigns targeting financial institutions involved in climate-damaging, so-called "brown", projects to measure the "brown" reputation of French banks. Using granular data on household deposit holdings in France from 2010 to 2020, we find that the worsened environmental reputation of a bank leads to a lower demand for its deposits. To interpret this as evidence that environmentally motivated customers leave brown banks, we exploit a 2017 regulatory reform that eliminated barriers to switching bank accounts. The relationship between deposit volumes and banks' brown reputation strengthens markedly after the reform, suggesting that reduced frictions allowed households to act on their environmental preferences and change for greener banks.

Keywords: Climate change; Households finance; Fossil banks; Green preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-07-08
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://sciencespo.hal.science/hal-04350378v3
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Working Paper: Some Don't Like It Hot: Bank Depositors and NGO Campaigns Against Brown Banks (2025) Downloads
Working Paper: Some Don't Like It Hot: Bank Depositors and NGO Campaigns Against Brown Banks (2025) Downloads
Working Paper: Some Don't Like it Hot: Bank Depositors and NGO Campaigns Against Brown Banks (2024) Downloads
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