THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON THE RISK-TAKING LEVEL OF CHINESE COMMERCIAL BANKS: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM CHINESE LOCAL COMMERCIAL BANKS

Abstract

China’s risk disasters caused by climate change have increased the risk-taking level of China’s commercial banks, posing a threat to the stable development of financial markets. Based on the data from 152 commercial banks in China from 2011 to 2021, this paper uses the fixed effect model to analyze the effect and mechanism of China’s climate change on the risk-taking level of Chinese commercial banks. The main conclusions are as follows. (1) Climate change has significantly improved the risk-taking level of Chinese commercial banks. The results remain significant under the robustness and endogenous tests, such as dealing with endogenous problems, changing variables and adjusting sample intervals. (2) The results of heterogeneity analysis show that under different regions and different types of conditions, the impact of climate change on the risk-taking level of China’s commercial banks is heterogeneous, and the impact is stronger in urban commercial banks and eastern China. (3) The direct economic losses caused by natural disasters caused by climate change affect the risk-taking level of Chinese commercial banks; however, the adjustment of ex ante disaster insurance can weaken the impact of climate change on the risk-taking level of Chinese commercial banks. This paper studies the impact of climate change on the risk-taking level of Chinese commercial banks from the perspective of bank risk-taking level, which is of great significance to enhance the risk prevention awareness of Chinese commercial banks in response to climate change.