with C. Custodio and D. Cvijanovic
Accepted, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis
We study the impact of opioid abuse on real estate prices. We document that opioid death rates and excess prescription rates are negatively associated with house prices. Exploiting the staggered passage of opioid-limiting legislation, we find that a decrease in opioid abuse results in higher county-level house prices. This effect is due to fewer mortgage delinquencies, lower vacancy rates, more home improvement loans, and increased population inflow. Our findings are consistent with improved real estate conditions and a rise in local demand. These results highlight the importance of public health policy in mitigating the economic costs of the opioid epidemic.
Media: IBKnowledge
There are markedly different views on the rise of the sustainable investment movement. Some commentators argue that it is just window dressing. Others believe that it is having a real impact on corporate sustainability. This paper seeks to determine how changes in the responsible investor base affects corporate green capital expenditures. I identify responsible investors via the Climate Action 100+ initiative and approximate green capital expenditures with green debt instruments. The proportion of institutional investors with sustainable preferences is higher in Europe and Asia than in the United States. I exploit this observation and use the cross-listing of European and Asian headquartered firms in the United States as a negative responsible ownership shock. In a staggered difference-in-differences estimation, I find that cross-listing firms have a lower responsible investor share and are less likely to undertake green capital expenditures post cross-listing. I also document that responsible institutional investors engage more with management and are associated with stricter green governance. Together, my findings suggest that responsible institutional investors foster greater green capital expenditures by exerting influence on management.
with P. Bolton and M. Kacperczyk
We analyze green and brown R&D activity worldwide and its effects in reducing carbon emissions. Innovating companies with higher carbon emissions engage more in brown R&D and less in green R&D. Despite a steady rise in the share of green R&D, green innovation does not predict future reductions in carbon emissions of innovating firms, non-innovating firms in the same sector, firms in other sectors, and across countries, whether in the short term (one year after filing a green patent) or in the medium term (three or five years out). Rather, green innovation predicts higher indirect emissions in related industries.
Supplementary material: Patent Classification
with D. Cvijanovic and A. Wu
Abstract:
We investigate the relationship between childhood mental health conditions and financial outcomes later in life. We find that individuals with childhood mental health conditions are significantly less likely to hold any assets, accumulate fewer total assets both unconditionally and conditionally on asset ownership, and are less likely to be homeowners over the life cycle. They also tend to accumulate more debt, and in particular more non-mortgage debt. These results are largely driven by white and male demographic groups. Financial literacy mitigates most of these effects. Childhood mental health is also linked to a lower likelihood of overconfidence, shorter life span expectancy and financial planning horizons, more pessimistic economic outlook, and reduced cognitive abilities, all of which may jointly explain the observed differences in financial outcomes.
2025: Conference on the Economics and Finance of Healthcare and Medicine at WashU*, Workshop on Biodiversity and Finance at Imperial
2024: AFA, Adam Smith Sustainability Conference, GRASFI, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Symposium NOVA
2023: UBC Winter Finance Conference, SSE Harnessing Finance for Climate*, Carey Finance Conference PhD Session, Hoyt Institute*
2022: CEPR Advanced Forum for Financial Economics (CAFFE)*, UBC Sauder Business School*, University of Southern California*, Bocconi University*, Stanford Institute for Theoretical Economics*, ECB Conference on Money Markets*
2021: AREUEA 2021 National Conference, MIT CRE Seminar Series*, Baruch College*, Ted Rodgers School of Business Management - Ryerson*
2020: UZH Young Researcher Workshop on Climate Finance, University of Reading*
2019: GRASFI PhD Workshop; University of Siegen Conference on Risk Governance and Sustainability
*: conference presentation by co-author