The E-axes Forum on Climate Change, Macroeconomics, and Finance
Login to Network

Policy Briefs

Illuminating Current Debates on Climate through Academic Insight: The Policy Brief Series

Drafted by economists who have shared their latest research in our Young Scholars’ webinar series, the Policy Briefs analyze key debates related to addressing climate change. The authors apply their expertise to elucidate the intricacies of reducing greenhouse gas emissions (“mitigation”) and adapting to current and expected climate impacts. By contextualizing recent scientific findings within policy conversations, the series illuminates evidence-based pathways for climate action. Both timely and thoughtful, the Policy Briefs aim to elevate discussions beyond rhetoric to the substantive domain of academic research.

Why Global Temperature Matters

Adrien Bilal (Stanford University) and Diego Känzig (Northwestern University) estimate that the macroeconomic damages from climate change are six times larger than previously thought.

Dynamic Green Disclosure Requirements

Deeksha Gupta (Johns Hopkins University) studies the optimal design of green disclosure reqirements to support firms’ transition to greener technologies.

The Impact of Green Investors on Stock Prices

Gong Cheng (BIS), Eric Jondeau (Universitè de Lausanne), Benoit Mojon (BIS), and Dimitri Vayanos (LSE) analyze whether a net zero strategy implemented by green investors would result in a drop in the stock prices of the brownest firms and/or an increase for greener firms upon the announcement and during the exclusion phase of a green index.

U.S. Banks’ Exposures to Climate Transition Risks

Climate change can pose risks to banks through the transition to a low-carbon economy. Hyeyoon Jung (New York Federal Reserve Bank) and her co-authors João A.C. Santos (New York Federal Reserve Bank), and Lee Seltzer (New York Federal Reserve Bank) in their new paper investigate the impact of climate transition policies on U.S. banks' credit risk. Their results are surprising.

Brown Capital (Re)Allocation

Olivier Darmouni (Columbia Business School) and Yuqi Zhang (Columbia Business School) examine who owns brown coal power plants, the single largest source of carbon emissions globally. They conduct a new study that shows while ownership by stock market investors is on the decline, private and especially state investors have grown significantly, slowing down the phase-out of fossil fuels.

Business as Usual: Bank Net Zero Commitments, Lending, and Engagement

Parinitha Sastry (Columbia Business School) discusses her new research with Emil Verner (MIT), and David Marques-Ibanez (ECB) on how efficient banks' voluntary net zero commitments are for reducing financed emissions, whether through divestment or engagement.

2023 E-axes Forum Research Prize: Honorable Mention

Incomplete markets and uncorrected environmental externalities result in the under-provision of low-carbon technologies. In her paper “Bringing breakthrough technologies to market: solar power and feed-in tariffs” , Sugandha Srivastav (University of Oxford) examines whether the United Kingdom’s renewable energy feed-in-tariff (FiT), which is a risk-reduction and price instrument, helped bring utility-scale solar energy to market.

The pace of change: how can private market investors generate the fastest social and environmental impact?

Jans Starmans (Stockholm School of Economics) explores how socially responsible investors can have an impact in a timely manner. He examines whether firm owners with high negative environmental externalities are incentivized to reduce these externalities proactively if they anticipate their firm to be bought by socially responsible investors.

2023 E-axes Forum Research Prize: Honorable Mention

Mayank Kumar (University of Michigan) argues in his paper "Getting Dirty Before You Get Clean: Institutional Investment in Fossil Fuels and the Green Transition" that private investment in fossil fuel companies does not adversely affect climate outcomes but rather it can support the green transition by financing clean technologies. Specifically, the paper studies the effects of PE investment in fossil fuel on solar energy technologies.

Homeward Bound: How Migrants Seek Out Familiar Climates

Charles A. Taylor (Harvard Business School) and Marco Tabellini (Harvard Business School) introduce the concept of “climate matching” as a driver of migration and establish several new results. They show that climate strongly predicts the spatial distribution of immigrants in the US, as movers select destinations with climates similar to their place of origin.

Reducing Carbon using Regulatory and Financial Market Tools

Adelina Barbalau (University of Alberta) shows how carbon-contingent securities can provide carbon reduction incentives that are equivalent to a carbon tax, and can thus offer a decentralized alternative to regulation which is not subject to political constraints.

Climate Policies and Protectionism

In this brief, we ask whether the implementation of national climate policies may spur a global race to protectionism. Consumer or production subsidies and border carbon adjustments may have positive mitigation effects but can also generate trade distortions and give national industries a competitive advantage against foreign firms.

Upload Research

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
  • Accepted file types: pdf, Max. file size: 50 MB.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Donate Now