ORCID ID

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2766-3771

Date of Award

8-2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Program

Financial Economics

Department

Economics and Finance

Major Professor

Neal Maroney

Second Advisor

Mohammad K Hassan

Third Advisor

Luca Pezzo

Fourth Advisor

Mosab Hammoudeh

Abstract

Externality disclosures have become a central focus of policymakers in Europe, through several initiatives including the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). In this study, I investigate whether these policies improve carbon disclosures, and more critically, whether such directives are reflected in firms’ implied cost of capital. Given the non-missing at random nature of emission disclosures, I employ Heckman selection model and a two-stage least squares (2SLS) imputation strategy. The results reveal a carbon discount: large brown firms face a lower ICC relative to their green counterparts, suggesting that investors do not uniformly penalize carbon intensity. This study provides novel evidence on the conditional and asymmetric pricing of carbon risk, with implications in environmental policy and the progress towards net-zero commitments.

Rights

The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.

Available for download on Wednesday, June 26, 2030

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