Using Chinese data, this paper reveals that climate disaster events have a positive impact on the granting of green invention patents. The occurrence of climate disasters leads the patent-granting officials to overestimate the likelihood of disaster recurrence, strengthens their perception of environmental protection as urgent, and consequently increases the number of patents that they grant. Salience bias, the tendency to overestimate probabilities due to the occurrence of salient events, is widely studied in psychology and behavioral finance. This paper extends this research by examining the influence of salience bias on people's behavior in processing green invention patents, with a specific focus on climate disaster events in Beijing, the headquarters of China's patent examination authority. In addition to the overall positive impact on granted patent numbers, the paper finds that (i) the influence of salience bias is temporary, with a more pronounced effect on energy-saving patents than on other categories of patents, and (ii) the primary effect is on green invention patents filed by firms in Beijing, with the effect of salience bias rapidly diminishing as the distance of the application city from Beijing increases.
Climate change-driven extreme heat events pose a major threat to urban expansion globally. This study evaluates the relationship between extreme heat and housing prices utilizing panel data from Chinese cities between 2009 and 2019. Our findings indicate a significant negative correlation between housing prices and extreme temperatures. Specifically, we observe a 0.1% reduction in housing prices for each additional day per year with temperatures surpassing 35°C. This research evaluates two primary mechanisms underpinning this finding. Firstly, our analysis demonstrates a decline in labor inflows to cities experiencing extreme heat, with a particularly significant effect on the influx of high-skilled workers. In addition, existing residents in these hotter urban environments exhibit reduced home-buying intentions and reduced proclivity for long-term residency, coupled with higher living costs. Secondly, our findings indicate that extreme heat acts as a deterrent to firm entry, thereby further suppressing housing demand. This study contributes valuable empirical insights into the capitalization of climate risk in housing markets, with a specific emphasis on the effect of extreme heat. Moreover, it highlights the urgent necessity for the development and implementation of sustainable adaptation strategies to reduce the negative effects of evolving climatic conditions.