Unraveling the impact of climate policy uncertainty on corporate default risk: Evidence from China

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of climate policy uncertainty (CPU) on corporate default risk based on the comprehensive dataset of Chinese A-listed firms. Based on the empirical study, we document a significant positive impact of China’s CPU on the corporate default risk, and the impact sounds systematically aggravating with the increasing term structure of default investigation. Our research also reveals that R&D investment, ESG performance and firm financial constraints function as effective channels between climate policy uncertainty and firm default risk. Also, better local development and higher managerial climate attention have mitigating effects on the relationship between CPU and corporate default risk, while state ownership intensifies the effect of CPU on corporate default risk. These findings highlight the externality of climate policy risk on corporate default risk profile from the empirical perspective.