Do Green Stocks Get You the Green? Differential Impacts of S&P 500 ESG Index Labels on Firm Stock Prices
by Heera Rajavel Abstract On January 28, 2019, the S&P Dow Jones Indices launched the ESG S&P 500 Index, aiming to create a sustainable index fund with a similar risk/return profile to the S&P 500 Index. This study assesses the causal mechanisms behind the performance of the S&P 500 ESG Index by running two difference-in-differences […]
Responses to EU Carbon Pricing: The Effect of Carbon Emissions Allowances on Renewable Energy Development in Advanced and Transitional EU Members
By John Dearing Using electricity price, generation, installed capacity, and carbon price data from the European Union from January 2015 to December 2018, this study finds that the carbon pricing in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) incentivizes electricity sector carbon emission reductions through renewable energy deployment only for economically advanced EU members. […]
The Role of Income in Environmental Justice: A National Analysis of Race, Housing Markets, and Air Pollution
By Christopher Brown Historically, evidence has shown that minority populations in the United States suffer a disproportionate burden of pollution compared to whites. This study examines whether this burden could be the result of income disparities between whites and minorities, acting through the housing market. We look at 324 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA’s) in the […]
Race and Pollution Correlation as Predictor of Environmental Injustice
By Marissa Meir Environmental injustice is a theory that claims distributions of toxic, hazardous and dangerous waste facilities are disproportionately located in low-income communities of color. This paper empirically demonstrates an alternative cause of environmental injustice- that low-income minorities are less likely to receive sizeable enough loans to buy a house in a cleaner area. […]