From the abstract:
We examine how retail investors’ opinions about renewable energy and climate
change shape their investment behavior. Using a decade of U.S. county-level survey data, we construct novel firm-level measures that capture retail investors’ energy- and global-warming-related opinions. We find that, following the disclosure of firm-level dirty energy incidents, firms experience a significant decline in retail net demand when their retail investors are supportive of renewable energy, believe in global warming, or are concerned about climate change. This pattern is evident in both marketable retail orders from TAQ and user records from Robinhood Markets. In contrast, we do not find a comparable effect of these opinions for incidents that are risky but unrelated to energy activities. The results are not driven by local demographic characteristics, regulatory stringency, or political leanings. Overall, our findings suggest that energy finance is meaningfully influenced by investor views on energy and climate.
