The impact of climate vulnerability on firms' cost of capital and access to finance
The impact of climate vulnerability on firms' cost of capital and access to finance
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气候脆弱性对企业资本成本和融资渠道的影响
DOI：
10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105131
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发表时间：
2021
影响因子：
6.9
通讯作者：
Kling G
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kling G
本文首次系统地调查了气候相关脆弱性对企业资本成本和融资渠道的影响，并揭示了气候脆弱的发展中经济体迄今为止被低估的气候变化成本。我们首先从理论上展示气候脆弱性如何影响企业的资本成本和融资渠道。除了可能对债务和股权成本产生影响（从而推高资本成本）外，气候风险高的国家的企业可能会受到更多的财务约束。由于融资渠道有限，后者导致债务相对于总资产或股本较低。然后，我们使用 1999 年至 2017 年期间 71 个国家的 15,265 家公司的面板数据来实证研究这个问题。我们利用来自汤森路透 Eikon 数据库的公司级数据以及基于 ND-GAIN 气候脆弱性指数的不同气候脆弱性衡量指标，调用面板数据回归和结构方程模型。我们构建了一个新的气候脆弱性指数，并使用面板工具变量回归来解决内生性问题。我们的实证研究结果表明，气候脆弱性通过限制融资渠道直接或间接增加了债务成本。然而，我们发现气候脆弱性影响公平成本的证据有限。我们的估计表明，从 1991 年到 2017 年，气候脆弱性对债务成本平均增长的直接影响为 0.63%。此外，气候脆弱性对财务杠杆影响的间接影响又贡献了0.05%。
This article presents the first systematic investigation of the effects of climate-related vulnerability on firms’ cost of capital and access to finance and sheds light on a hitherto under-appreciated cost of climate change for climate vulnerable developing economies. We first show theoretically how climate vulnerability could affect firms’ cost of capital and access to finance. Apart from a possible impact on cost of debt and equity, which drive cost of capital, firms in countries with high exposure to climate risk might be more financially constrained. The latter results in low levels of debt relative to total assets or equity due to restricted access to finance. We then examine this issue empirically, using panel data of 15,265 firms in 71 countries over the period 1999–2017. We invoke panel data regressions and structural equation models, with firm-level data from the Thomson Reuters Eikon database and different measures of climate vulnerability based on the ND-GAIN climate vulnerability index. We construct a new climate vulnerability index and use panel instrumental variable regressions to address endogeneity problems. Our empirical findings suggest that climate vulnerability increases cost of debt directly and indirectly through its impact on restricting access to finance. However, we find limited evidence that climate vulnerability affects cost of equity. Our estimations suggest that the direct effect of climate vulnerability on the average increase in cost of debt from 1991 to 2017 has been 0.63%. In addition, the indirect effect through climate vulnerability’s impact on financial leverage has contributed an additional 0.05%.