【报告主题】Pricing the Priceless: The Financial Cost of Biodiversity Conservation
【主讲嘉宾】高昊宇，中国人民大学金融学教授
【报告时间】2024年5月28日 13:00
【报告地点】会计学院108室
【内容提要】
Biodiversity loss as a global concern requires drastic shifts in conservation efforts that carry substantial costs. We investigate how the financial market prices such conservation costs, exploiting the “Green Shield Action” (GSA) — an unexpected regulatory change aimed at preserving biodiversity in national nature reserves in China — as an exogenous shock to local public financing. We document that GSA, while improving biodiversity, augments the yields of municipal corporate bonds by around 24 basis points. The effects are more pronounced for bonds with shorter maturities and for local governments in weak fiscal positions. The increased cost of public capital can be largely attributed to transition pressure resulting from pre-existing economic activities within reserves and the growth in local public spending on biodiversity following the reform. Investors show little consideration beyond financial payoffs towards endeavors counteracting biodiversity loss. Our findings also point to the role of investor education and policy interventions in closing the financing gap for biodiversity conservation.