Climate vulnerability and capital structure: Moderating effect of financial development, financial constraints, and 2015 Paris Agreement

Abstract

Previous studies show that climate vulnerability affects capital structure. This research goes beyond by extending to cross-sessional analysis emphasizing the impact of climate vulnerability on capital structure conditional on firm-level financial constraints, country-level financial development, and the Paris Agreement. Using a sample of 15,612 firms across 13 Asian countries over the period from 2010 to 2020, we find that the effect of the vulnerability is more pronounced among firms with higher financial constraints and in countries with higher levels of financial development. We also find that the impact of climate vulnerability on corporate financial leverage is stronger after the Paris Agreement. Our findings are consistent with the argument that climate vulnerability incentivizes firms to lower their reliance on debt, and the heightened climate transition risk after the Paris Agreement intensifies this effect. This study provides insights into firms' capital structure choice behaviour when faced with climate change risks.