Asia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies最新文献

This paper reviews the economic foundations of green finance and how it works in practice. Public policy is essential for addressing climate externalities, but its impact is often limited by policy swings and the difficulty of coordinating across countries. These gaps have raised expectations for private investors, yet common channels such as divestment and engagement face structural hurdles: heterogenous investor preferences, fiduciary constraints, and weak links between ESG metrics and real economic outcomes. Recent research finds that sustainable investing tends to shift portfolios more than it cuts emissions. Transition-focused tools, including sustainability-linked bonds, show more promise. Overall, we argue that green finance is most effective as a complement to public policy and technological innovation, not a substitute for them.

This study examines whether and how fund networks influence the disposition effect of fund managers. We use quarterly data from Chinese open-ended equity funds for the period from 2013 to 2024. First, we demonstrate a negative relationship between fund networks and fund managers' disposition effects, indicating that the higher the centrality of the fund network, the lower the disposition effect of fund managers. Second, fund managers' stock-picking and market-timing abilities play a U-shaped moderating role in the relationship between network centrality and the disposition effect. Finally, higher fund performance ranking, industry concentration, and economic policy uncertainty weaken the negative impact of fund networks on the disposition effect of fund managers. This study provides better insights into how fund networks affect fund managers' dispositions.

This study examines the impacts of physical climate risks on banking stability using a global panel dataset (2005–2023). We analyze natural disasters, climate vulnerability and readiness, carbon pricing policies, and macroeconomic conditions using fixed-effects regression models. Our findings provide mixed evidence on the relationship between natural disasters and banking stability. Natural disasters typically increase nonperforming loans (NPLs), reduce liquidity, and lower capital adequacy, though effects vary substantially by context. Climate vulnerability significantly exacerbates liquidity pressures and equity reductions but also generates unexpected short-term stabilizing effects, possibly due to regulatory interventions. Climate readiness demonstrates selective effectiveness, moderating profitability volatility and enhancing liquidity and capital stability in certain contexts. Carbon pricing policies initially induce transitional challenges but yield substantial long-term stability benefits by incentivizing banks to shift toward sustainable asset portfolios. Macroeconomic conditions, notably GDP per capita and government debt levels, further moderate banks' resilience to climate shocks, revealing complex interactions that simultaneously amplify and mitigate banking vulnerabilities. These findings provide policy-relevant evidence, highlighting the necessity for tailored frameworks and context-specific risk management strategies that effectively balance transitional economic impacts with long-term financial resilience objectives.

Banks sit at the center of climate risk dynamics, as virtually all firms and households exposed to climate risks interact with banks through credit, deposits, and other financial services. We develop a framework for how climate risks map onto banks' credit, market, liquidity, and operational risks, and how bank risk management choices in turn shape real economic and climate outcomes. We highlight banks' dual role as absorbers and transmitters of climate risks: prudent management can enhance resilience, while credit rationing or mispricing may amplify vulnerabilities and inequality. By synthesizing recent literature and regulatory approaches, we underscore that climate-related financial risks are central to the banking sector and identify open questions for research and policy.

By analyzing 19 715 firm–year observations from 2640 companies across 38 OECD member economies between 2002 and 2023, this study examines the effect of climate risk exposure on firm default risk. Our findings suggest that firms with higher climate risk exposure, as measured by physical risk and transition risk indicators, are more likely to default. We then explore how financial constraints influence this relationship and find that innovation mitigates the impact of climate risk on default risk. However, firms should prioritize green innovation instead of increasing overall research and development (R&D) investment. Moreover, the relationship between climate risk exposure and default risk varies depending on financial constraints, industry climate sensitivity, and regulatory stringency. Overall, our study provides practical insights for managers, policymakers, and investors, underscoring the importance of integrating climate risk into firm assessments, investment strategies, and green technology transitions.

Commercial banks manage climate risk by pricing firm climate risk exposure into loan spreads. Using annual report disclosures, we measure this exposure and estimate its impact on loan pricing. A one-standard-deviation increase in climate risk exposure raises loan spreads by 40 basis points on average. Banks respond to firm transition risks but not to physical risks. This effect stems from transition risks that reduce firm profitability and increase default probabilities. In contrast, banks do not adjust loan spreads for physical risks which primarily cause losses in tangible assets. The pricing of climate risk intensifies for high leverage and risk firm, as these firms are more susceptible to climate-related shocks. External factors also matter: during periods of heightened public climate awareness and for banks with strong environmental commitments, the climate risk premium in loan spreads grows larger.

We examine the relationship between firms' environmental and social (ES) performances and their resilience during significant negative shocks. In contrast to prior studies documenting greater resilience among US firms with higher ES scores due to social capital acquisition, we find the opposite trend among Korean firms. Following the COVID-19 outbreak, firms with higher ES scores exhibited worse stock performances. With more resources allocated toward ES engagement, these firms faced tighter financial and operational constraints, limiting their ability to respond flexibly to adverse shocks. Despite investing more in ES initiatives, Korean firms lacking transparent corporate governance failed to acquire their stakeholders' support.

This paper investigates the relationship between guanxi-based (relation-based) proximity to political power (GUPPP), government subsidies, and investment efficiency within the context of China. Employing a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2007 to 2019, we find that firms in provinces with high GUPPP receive more government subsidies, particularly non-tax subsidies, compared to those in provinces with low GUPPP. Moreover, we find that the association between GUPPP and government subsidies is more pronounced for firms that have local political connections. We further find that subsidies improve the investment efficiency of under-invested firms but exacerbate the investment inefficiency of over-invested firms. Our results suggest that effective political connections encompass both central–province and province–firm relationships, at least within the context of our study on subsidies.

This paper investigates how collaboration depth influences forecast performance in analyst teams. Based on Chinese A-share market data from 2007 to 2022, we find that teams with deeper collaboration experience produce more accurate and timely forecasts. Cross-sectional analyses indicate that the effect on forecast accuracy becomes more significant when the lead analyst has more firm-specific experience, there is greater gender diversity in the analyst teams, and when the firm has high information opacity. For timeliness, the effect is stronger in teams with high education diversity and in firms with highly volatile revenues, but weaker in teams with more star analysts. Furthermore, the positive effect of collaboration depth on forecast accuracy is more significant in brokerage firms with stronger collaboration cultures. However, deeper collaboration among analyst teams is also associated with increased herding behavior. These findings have practical implications for brokers and analysts.

This study investigates how the availability of proprietary cost information influences corporate investment. By leveraging the regulatory cessation of disaggregated cost reporting in Korea, we document a decline in investment-q sensitivity after peers stop disclosing the detailed cost information, suggesting significant externalities arising from peers' proprietary information contained in cost reports. This finding is robust to alternative measures and estimation methods. We echo the importance of disaggregated cost information in product market competition and managerial learning from peer disclosure.