{"title":"The impact of climatic disaster on corporate investment policy","authors":"Zhi-Yuan Feng , Chou-Wen Wang , Yu-Hong Lu","doi":"10.1016/j.mulfin.2022.100773","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Extreme weather events have been occurring in recent years with high frequency and resulting in enormous physical and monetary damages. There is a large strand of literature illustrating how past disaster experiences alter individuals’ behavioral decisions in the future, leading them to make inappropriate decisions. In view of this, the main topic of this research is to explore whether companies choose to pursue stability and low risk after experiencing catastrophes. By investigating the impact of 33 U.S. hurricanes and 4 tropical cyclones on U.S. public companies’ investment policies, the empirical results reveal that firms located in disaster regions reduce their investment and capital expenditures during the post-disaster period. We further implement several robustness tests regarding subsample analyses, the propensity-score matching sample, and excluding the impact associated with the 2008 global financial crisis. Evidence of the robustness tests remain consistent and conjecture that companies indeed are inclined to behave more conservatively after experiencing climatic disasters.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":47268,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Multinational Financial Management","volume":"66 ","pages":"Article 100773"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Multinational Financial Management","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1042444X22000445","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BUSINESS, FINANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Extreme weather events have been occurring in recent years with high frequency and resulting in enormous physical and monetary damages. There is a large strand of literature illustrating how past disaster experiences alter individuals’ behavioral decisions in the future, leading them to make inappropriate decisions. In view of this, the main topic of this research is to explore whether companies choose to pursue stability and low risk after experiencing catastrophes. By investigating the impact of 33 U.S. hurricanes and 4 tropical cyclones on U.S. public companies’ investment policies, the empirical results reveal that firms located in disaster regions reduce their investment and capital expenditures during the post-disaster period. We further implement several robustness tests regarding subsample analyses, the propensity-score matching sample, and excluding the impact associated with the 2008 global financial crisis. Evidence of the robustness tests remain consistent and conjecture that companies indeed are inclined to behave more conservatively after experiencing climatic disasters.
期刊介绍:
International trade, financing and investments have grown at an extremely rapid pace in recent years, and the operations of corporations have become increasingly multinationalized. Corporate executives buying and selling goods and services, and making financing and investment decisions across national boundaries, have developed policies and procedures for managing cash flows denominated in foreign currencies. These policies and procedures, and the related managerial actions of executives, change as new relevant information becomes available. The purpose of the Journal of Multinational Financial Management is to publish rigorous, original articles dealing with the management of the multinational enterprise. Theoretical, conceptual, and empirical papers providing meaningful insights into the subject areas will be considered. The following topic areas, although not exhaustive, are representative of the coverage in this Journal. • Foreign exchange risk management • International capital budgeting • Forecasting exchange rates • Foreign direct investment • Hedging strategies • Cost of capital • Managing transaction exposure • Political risk assessment • International working capital management • International financial planning • International tax management • International diversification • Transfer pricing strategies • International liability management • International mergers.