Yes / This study contributes to the existing literature on the relationship between oil market shocks and the green bond market by investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their dynamic correlation. We first decompose the oil market shocks into components using a time-frequency framework. Then, we combine wavelet decomposition and quantile coherence and causality methods to discuss changes during the COVID-19 era. We observe positive effects of both supply-driven and demand-driven oil shocks on the green bond market at most quantile levels. However, supply-driven oil price changes play a major role. The results also indicate that long-term changes have a greater impact than short-term changes on the connection between oil and green bond markets. Nevertheless, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the nature of the causal relationship, as we observed no relationship under extreme market conditions during the pandemic era. We argue that the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have left investors focusing on the short-term substitution between oil and green bond markets. / This research was supported by the Major Projects of the National Natural Science Fund of China [NO. 71991483], the Natural Science Fund of Hunan Province [NO. 2022JJ40647] and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of Central South University [NO. 2022ZZTS0353]. / The full-text of this article will be released for public view at the end of the publisher embargo on 06 Oct 2024.

This research analyzes the motives and future of the Nordic green bond market from an underwriter perspective. Threefold motives for being active in the Nordic green bond market are found. There are monetary gains, corporate social responsibility, and an opportunity to receive and maintain legitimacy. Several important factors for the future of the Nordic green bond market are identified. The EU Taxonomy will have a major impact on this market, and is the most important factor for the future of it. Further, sustainability-linked bonds enable the transition of various sectors towards sustainability and are an important factor for the development of the Nordic bond market in general. Experts that possess roles within green bond underwriting and green bond investing have been interviewed. Stakeholder theory, corporate social responsibility and legitimacy theory have been implemented in this research with the aim of analyzing the motives and future of the Nordic green bond market. By doing that, this research contributes to a broader theoretical discussion in the area of sustainable finance.

This paper examines what effects announcements of green bond issuances have on publicly traded firms’ stock prices in Europe. Signalling theory is used in line with suggestions from previous research to investigate potential abnormal returns. Using a dataset of 432 green bond issuances from 165 unique publicly traded firms on European stock exchanges, we conduct an event study around the announcement day [0,1] estimating abnormal returns using the market model. To further investigate determinants of abnormal returns we conduct a multiple linear regression analysis. We document no statistic or economic significant effect in our full sample. Only first-time issuances of green bonds have a significant abnormal return of 0,74% in the period after announcement but show no significant results on the announcement date. Green bonds being a credible signal of environmental commitment thus has inconclusive support in our study and equity investors seem largely indifferent to firm’s green bond announcements.

The green bond market has grown rapidly in the past years but still only stands for 1 percent of the total bond market. More issuers need to issue green bonds for the green bond market to grow, and investors need to invest in new issuers. A weakness of the green bond market is that there is no universal definition of sustainability. This thesis investigates the green bond market from investors’ perspectives, focusing on the role of trust in the green bond market. The thesis is qualitative research containing eight interviews with people on pension funds, asset management firms, an insurance company, and a fixed-income institute. The interviews were supplemented with a short questionary. The main findings are that trust has a vital role in the green bond market. Trust between investors and issuers can be strengthened through increased transparency from the issuer. Issuers’ general sustainability work is essential for investors when investing in green bonds. The research identified that the green bond market growth would benefit if a third-party actor would vouch for the company’s sustainability work. A recommendation to facilitate market growth is to establish a voluntary standardized sustainability rating with clear financial incentives for the issuer. It would enhance issuers’ sustainability awareness and increase transparency for the investors as the rating would be on the issuers’ initiative. / Den gröna obligationsmarknaden har vuxit kraftigt de senaste åren men står endast för 1 procent av den totala obligationsmarknaden. För att marknaden ska växa behöver fler emittenter utfärda gröna obligationer samtidigt som investerare behöver investera i nya emittenter. En svaghet för den gröna obligationsmarknaden är att det saknas en universell definition av hållbarhet. Detta arbete undersöker den gröna obligationsmarknaden från en investerares perspektiv med fokus på tillitens betydelse på marknaden. Arbetet är en kvalitativ studie som baseras på åtta intervjuer med personer inom pensionsbolag, kapitalförvaltning, försäkringsbolag och ett ränteinstitut. Intervjuerna kompletterades med en kort enkät. De viktigaste resultaten visar på att tillit har en betydande roll på den gröna obligationsmarknaden. Tillit mellan investerare och emittenter kan stärkas genom ökad transparens från emittentens sida. Resultat visar även på att emittentens generella hållbarhetsarbete är viktigt för investerare när de investerar i en grön obligation. Det identifieras att den gröna obligationsmarknaden skulle kunna dra fördel av om det existerar en tredjepartsaktör som kan bekräfta en emittents hållbarhetsarbete. Ett förslag som eventuellt skulle kunna leda till marknadstillväxt är att införa ett standardiserat hållbarhetsbetyg kopplat till tydliga finansiella incitament för både emittenten och investeraren. Detta skulle öka transparensen för investerare samt kunna förbättra emittentens medvetenhet gällande hållbarhet eftersom bedömningen skulle göras på emittentens initiativ.