Submitted by Edypo Soares de Oliveira (edyposoares@gmail.com) on 2016-12-21T17:03:50Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese FGV MPFE - Edypo Soares eng - 21dec16.pdf: 751881 bytes, checksum: 503843ddee636b0d04d0195201a33270 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Renata de Souza Nascimento (renata.souza@fgv.br) on 2016-12-21T17:08:37Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese FGV MPFE - Edypo Soares eng - 21dec16.pdf: 751881 bytes, checksum: 503843ddee636b0d04d0195201a33270 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-22T13:14:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese FGV MPFE - Edypo Soares eng - 21dec16.pdf: 751881 bytes, checksum: 503843ddee636b0d04d0195201a33270 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-14 / Literature has often examined how hedging affects firm value and cost of capital, but its relation with cost of debt is less studied, especially for Latin American firms. This dissertation examined the impact of derivatives usage over credit spread of the bonds issued by 66 non-financial companies from Brazil, Chile and Mexico, based on the secondary market transactions from 2005 to 2015. To test the hypothesis that hedging reduces credit spread, we performed different regressions based on Chen and King (2014) study. We only found a significant coefficient for hedging and leverage interaction for the post-2008 period, supporting Coutinho, Sheng and Lora (2012) findings that companies were not using derivatives for hedging purpose before the financial crisis and also corroborates Chen and King (2014) hypothesis that more leveraged firms obtain higher benefits from hedging. / Há uma extensa literatura examinando como o uso de derivativos afeta o valor e o custo de capital da firma, porém sua relação com o custo da dívida (spread de crédito) é menos estudada, especialmente para os países da América Latina. Esta dissertação, a partir dos dados do mercado secundário dos títulos (bonds) emitidos por 66 empresas não financeiras de Brasil, Chile e México no período entre 2005 e 2015, analisa o impacto do uso de derivativos sobre o spread de crédito. Para testar a hipótese de que hedging reduz o spread de crédito pago pelas companhias, rodamos diferentes regressões baseadas no estudo de Cheng e King (2014). Encontramos resultados significativos apenas para a interação entre hedging e alavancagem no período posterior a 2008, em linha com o que foi reportado por Coutinho, Sheng e Lora (2012), que investigam a relação entre hedging e custo de capital. Resultado corrobora as hipóteses de que (1) empresas estariam utilizando derivativos para especular antes da Crise Financeira e (2) conforme Chen e King (2014), as empresas mais alavancadas (maior stress financeiro) são as que mais se beneficiam do uso de derivativos.

Submitted by Cristiane Shirayama (cristiane.shirayama@fgv.br) on 2011-06-02T19:30:03Z No. of bitstreams: 1 66080100241.pdf: 230548 bytes, checksum: acf3b99268af7bca332c69f2674ddd1e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Vera Lúcia Mourão(vera.mourao@fgv.br) on 2011-06-02T20:17:23Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 66080100241.pdf: 230548 bytes, checksum: acf3b99268af7bca332c69f2674ddd1e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Vera Lúcia Mourão(vera.mourao@fgv.br) on 2011-06-02T20:39:01Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 66080100241.pdf: 230548 bytes, checksum: acf3b99268af7bca332c69f2674ddd1e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-06-03T17:53:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 66080100241.pdf: 230548 bytes, checksum: acf3b99268af7bca332c69f2674ddd1e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-02-03 / This thesis analyzed the determinants of the capital structure for Brazilian companies. A relevant contribution of this study, especially in the Brazilian environment, was the use of debt on a disaggregated level (local currency loans, foreign currency loans and synthetic local currency loans), in order to examine the key determinants of corporate financing under an environment of high foreign currency volatility. The understanding of these forces interest not only the academy but mainly the managers of our companies on its capital structure decisions, as well as the financial market players on their roles of advisory and portfolio management. We used panel data models, according to recent methodology trends, to test the main characteristics that determine the utilization of one or another type of debt in Brazil, comparing to the theoretical predictions. Our data set was provided by Economática and included all non-financial corporation listed in Bovespa, for the years 2006 through 2009, complemented by a deep analysis of the annual reports and financials notes published at CVM. Our results show that the significance of the variables size (positive relation), growth opportunitiy (negative) and profitability (negative) as expected by the Static Trade-Off, Costly Monitoring & Agency and Pecking Order theories respectively. At the disaggregated level, we find common results for these three components, and also unique factors such as foreign EBIT and foreign cash, which determines the type and level of the financing instrument by the company according to the Risk Management theory, and also confirming the ideas presented in the studies of Allayannis and Brown (2003). / Este trabalho analisou quais são os principais determinantes do endividamento das empresas brasileiras. A principal contribuição em relação aos trabalhos já publicados está relacionada à desagregação dos tipos de endividamento de acordo com a moeda (dívida em moeda local, dívida em moeda estrangeira e dívida sinteticamente local através do hedge), esclarecendo os principais determinantes do endividamento das empresas, de acordo com o tipo empregado, num ambiente de alta volatilidade cambial. O entendimento de tal dinâmica interessa não apenas à academia, mas principalmente aos administradores de empresas em suas decisões sobre estrutura de capital bem como aos participantes do mercado financeiro nos papéis de assessores dos seus clientes. Outra importante contribuição do trabalho, já no aspecto metodológico, foi o uso de Dados em Painel para testarmos quais características determinam a utilização de um ou outro tipo de endividamento no Brasil, de acordo com as principais teorias de estrutura de capital na literatura e comparando os resultados com as expectativas de cada uma dela. Nossa base de dados foi estruturada com empresas brasileiras não financeiras, utilizando-se da ferramenta Economática bem como da análise cuidadosa das demonstrações financeiras anuais disponibilizadas na CVM, para os anos de 2006 a 2009. Os resultados encontrados indicam a significância e consistência dos coeficientes de tamanho da empresa (positivo), oportunidade de crescimento (negativo) e lucratividade (negativo), em linha com as teorias de "Static Trade-Off", "Costly Monitoring & Agency" e "Pecking Order". No nível desagregado, nossos modelos encontraram resultados comuns ao caso agregado, mas também fatores únicos, como receitas e caixa em moeda estrangeira, que determinam o tipo e o nível do endividamento, corroborando com a teoria de "Risk Management", e confirmando alguns dos pressupostos de Allayannis e Brown (2003).

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of Operational Risk Management (ORM) in the successes of Small Medium Enterprise (SME’s) and to establish whether ORM has a direct correlation to the survival rate of SME’s, which have been operational for a minimum period of five years. The study was limited geographically to Gauteng South Africa, in particular the Kya Sands Industrial area. The South African Government is focusing on promoting small business to reduce the high unemployment rate and to increase the growth of the economy through developing SME’s. Statistics states that South Africa currently has an unemployment rate of 25.5 per cent, in the third quarter of 2015 (Statistic South Africa, 2015), which is the worst rate since the first Labor Forces Survey in 2008. It is well known that SME’s contribute significantly to the world’s economy. After conducting a significant literature review, it was found that no applicable research has been done globally or locally regarding ORM in SME’s as per NG & Kee (2012). Most research in ORM is focused on large organisations, specifically the banking industry. The need for this study arose as literature reviews reveals a high rate of SME failures, regardless of various financial assistance programs from Government for starting and assisting SME’s. In determining the impact of ORM by addressing the high probability of failure of SME’s in emerging markets this research will be the first step in determining the value and trajectory of additional insights for SME sustainability . Thus ORM could indirectly provide assistance in undertaking and addressing the unemployment and economic freedom challenges in South Africa. This is unique and new knowledge generating ground breaking finding s as ORM was not regarded nor researched, as a critical contributing success factor for smaller companies. This research had a positive approach and was of a quantitative and exploratory nature to investigate the research question and problem statements. The research instrument was a self-designed semi-structured enumerated questionnaire. Personal ii interviews were conducted with willing participants in order to obtain first hand data. This was an avant-garde study. The results based on the facts and perception of the owners and managers indicated the extent of implementation of ORM in the various business departments of the SME’s. It was found that ORM is a contributing factor regarding the success of SME’s. As a result, the main research problem and sub- problems were answered. Therefore ORM definitely plays a vital role in the survival rate of a SME and can be regarded as a critical success factor for SME’s if implemented and managed. Through identifying the facts and perceptions of the owners and managers of SME’s regarding ORM, further research can be conducted to identify the extent that ORM can have on the SME’s successes. / Graduate School of Business Leadership (SBL) / M.Tech. (Business Administration)

The study focuses on tariff-linked (or commodity-linked) agreements entered into between a power utility and commodity producers. The main purpose of these types of agreements is to link electricity tariff payable by commodity producers to the price of the commodity produced thereby transferring a certain level of commodity price risk to the power utility. The study looks at risk management practices of a power utility company with a particular reference to tariff-linked agreements. Also, the study critically analyses risk hedging mechanisms put in place by the power utility. The report makes practical recommendations, where applicable, in dealing with these risks. Risk management continuously evolve to meet the challenges of complex financial world. Despite the latest sophisticated risk management tools available commodity producers still encounter difficulties to hedge the price risk. The challenge for the power utility is the application of new risk management tools to effectively manage price risk. / Business Management / M.Com. (Business Economics)

Cette thèse de doctorat s'inscrit dans le courant de recherche qui étudie les implications financières associées à une meilleure responsabilité sociale des entreprises (RSE). Après un chapitre préliminaire qui nous permet de présenter la littérature antérieure et de situer notre recherche, nous effectuons trois études empiriques. Dans la première étude, nous étudions l'impact de la RSE sur le risque financier des entreprises (mesuré par le risque total, systématique et spécifique). En utilisant un échantillon de 5716 observations entre 2001 et 2011, nous montrons que les entreprises socialement responsables réduisent significativement leur risque systématique. Les résultats de cette étude suggèrent aussi que ces entreprises disposent d'un capital moral qui absorbe l'impact de potentiels chocs spécifiques. Quant à l'analyse des dimensions de la RSE, nous démontrons que les “ressources humaines” réduisent le plus le risque financier des firmes, suivies par le “ comportement sur le marché” et le “gouvernement d'entreprise”. Dans la deuxième étude empirique, nous nous intéressons à l'impact de la RSE sur la maturité de la dette des entreprises. En utilisant un large échantillon d'entreprises américaines, nous montrons que les entreprises socialement responsables réduisent significativement la maturité de leur dette. Nous montrons aussi que ces entreprises substituent les capitaux propres à la dette long-terme. Un niveau élevé de RSE réduit la proportion des investissements financés par de la dette long-terme et augmente la proportion des investissements financés par des capitaux propres et de la dette court-terme. Dans la troisième étude empirique, nous utilisons un échantillon de 22389 observations entre 1991 et 2012 et nous nous intéressons à la relation entre la RSE et la politique de dividendes. Nous soulignons que les entreprises socialement responsables paient plus de dividendes que les entreprises non socialement responsables. Nous démontrons aussi que les entreprises socialement responsables ont une politique de dividendes plus stable. Globalement, nos résultats empiriques valident nos hypothèses. Ils suggèrent que les entreprises socialement responsables utilisent la maturité de leur dette et leur politique de dividendes comme des mécanismes qui permettent de contrôler les phénomènes de surinvestissement en RSE. Ces mécanismes permettent de renforcer les effets positifs liés à une meilleure RSE (i.e., la réduction du risque). / Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is, nowadays, considered one of the most debated topics in both theory and practice. This dissertation investigates some financial implications associated with high CSR involvement. After Synthesizing the existing literature in the field, we perform three empirical studies. The first empirical study examines the impact of CSR on firm financial risk (measured by total, systematic and specific risks). Using a database of 5,716 firm-year observations between 2001 and 2011, we show that a socially responsible firm avoids certain risks acknowledged by the financial market as socially responsible systematic risks, like environment penalties and consumer disloyalty. Socially responsible firms also own a moral capital that reduces the impact of some firm specific shocks and thus the idiosyncratic risk level. It appears that the most important reduction of financial risk is due to the “human resources” sub-rating, followed by “business behavior” and “corporate governance”. The second empirical study investigates the impact of CSR on firm debt maturity. Using a large sample of US firms, we find robust evidence that high CSR firms significantly reduce their debt maturity. Furthermore, high CSR firms substitute shareholders' equity for long-term debt. CSR decreases the extent to which investments are financed with long-term debt and increases the extent to which investments are financed by short-term debt and shareholders' equity. The third empirical study uses a sample of 22,839 US firm-year observations over the 1991–2012 period in order to explore the relationship between CSR and dividend payout policy. We find that high CSR firms pay more dividends than low CSR firms. Moreover, socially irresponsible firms adjust dividends quicker than socially responsible firms: dividend payout is more stable in high CSR firms than in low CSR firms. Additional results show that firms involved in two controversial activities –military business and alcohol – are associated with low dividend payouts, which is likely to be due to the high cost of external funding for these firms. Overall, our results support the expectation that socially responsible firms use debt maturity and dividend payout as mechanisms to avoid CSR overinvestment problems and to maintain the positive effects associated with high CSR strategies (i.e., risk reduction).

Cette thèse examine l’impact de l’investissement socialement responsable sur le risque et la performance des portefeuilles. Elle s’articule autour de quatre études, dont trois études empiriques. La première étude propose un état des lieux et une analyse critique des risques RSE des portefeuilles. Elle indique que les risques RSE évalués de diverses manières selon les acteurs existent toujours au sein des portefeuilles et évoluent en fonction du contexte institutionnel. Leur niveau peut être plus au moins élevé selon les pratiques RSE des entreprises dans lesquelles les capitaux sont placés. La deuxième étude porte sur l’analyse comparative du risque financier des fonds ISR et des fonds conventionnels. Sur un échantillon de fonds commercialisés en France sur la période 2002-2012, nos résultats montrent que les fonds ISR peuvent avoir un niveau de diversification plus élevé que les fonds conventionnels appariés, quelles que soient les conditions de marché. Il s’agit des fonds ISR investis dans la zone euro et à l’international. Cependant, les fonds ISR investis dans la zone euro, en Europe et en France ont un risque systématique plus important que celui de leurs homologues classiques contrairement aux fonds ISR investis à l’international. La troisième étude analyse le risque financier des portefeuilles construits selon le niveau de performance ESG des entreprises sur la période2002-2014. Ces portefeuilles portent sur des entreprises de la zone euro, mais aussi sur des entreprises américaines. Nos analyses montrent que les portefeuilles américains qui sur-performent globalement ou individuellement sur les trois critères ESG ont un risque financier plus faible que ceux qui sous-performent sur ces dimensions. Pour les mêmes types de portefeuilles, la zone euro affiche un risque spécifique plus faible. Les résultats sur le risque systématique sont influencés par les effets relatifs au secteur d’activité pour les portefeuilles américains et par ceux relatifs au pays pour les portefeuilles de la zone euro. La quatrième étude examine la persistance de la performance financière des fonds ISR et des fonds conventionnels. Elle indique à travers les tests non-paramétriques qu’il n’existe pas de persistance de la performance pour les fonds ISR et les fonds conventionnels. / This thesis examines the impact of socially responsible investment on the risk and performance of portfolios. It is based on four studies, including three empirical studies.The first study proposes an inventory and a critical analysis of the portfolios' CSR risks. It indicates that CSR risks assessed in different ways by the actors still exist within the portfolios and evolve with the institutional context. Their level may be low or high depending on the CSR practices of the companies in which the resources are invested. The second study deals with the comparative analysis of the financial risk of SRI funds and conventional funds. On a sample of funds distributed in France over the period 2002-2012, our results show that SRI funds may have a higher level of diversification than matched conventional matched regardless of market conditions. These are SRI funds invested in the Eurozone and globally. However, regardless of market conditions, SRI funds invested in the Eurozone, Europe and France have a greater systematic risk than their traditional counterparts, contrary to SRI global funds. The third study analyzes the financial risk of portfolios built according to companies’ level of ESG performance over the period 2002-2014. These portfolios cover the Eurozone and the U.S. firms. Our analysis shows that the U.S. portfolios which over-perform on the aggregate ESG criteria or individually on the three ESG criteria have a lower financial risk than those that underperform on these dimensions. For the same types of portfolios, the Eurozone exhibit a lower specific risk. The results on the systematic risk are influenced by the industry-specific effects for the U.S. portfolios and the country-specific effects for the Eurozone portfolios. The fourth study examines the financial performance persistence of SRI and conventional funds. It shows through non-parametric tests that there is no performance persistence for both SRI and conventional funds.

本論文的目標是利用文本情緒分析技巧，針對美國上市公司的財務報表進行以句子為單位的風險評估。過去的財報文本分析研究裡，大多關注於詞彙層面的風險偵測。然而財務文本中大多數的財務詞彙與前後文具有高度的語意相關性，僅靠閱讀單一詞彙可能無法完全理解其隱含的財務訊息。本文將研究層次由詞彙拉升至句子，根據基於嵌入概念的~fastText~與~Siamese CBOW~兩種句子向量表示法學習模型，利用基於嵌入概念模型中，使用目標詞與前後詞彙關聯性表示目標詞語意的特性，萃取出財報句子裡更深層的財務意涵，並學習出更適合用於財務文本分析的句向量表示法。實驗驗證部分，我們利用~10-K~財報資料與本文提出的財務標記資料集進行財務風險分類器學習，並以傳統詞袋模型（Bag-of-Word）作為基準，利用精確度（Accuracy）與準確度（Precision）等評估標準進行比較。結果證實基於嵌入概念模型的表示法在財務風險評估上比傳統詞袋模型有著更準確的預測表現。由於近年大數據時代的來臨，網路中的資訊量大幅成長，依賴少量人力在短期間內分析海量的財務資訊變得更加困難。因此如何協助專業人員進行有效率的財務判斷與決策，已成為一項重要的議題。為此，本文同時提出一個以句子為分析單位的財報風險語句偵測系統~RiskFinder~，依照~fastText~與~Siamese CBOW~兩種模型，經由~10-K~財務報表與人工標記資料集學習出適當的風險語句分類器後，對~1996~至~2013~年的美國上市公司財務報表進行財報句子的自動風險預測，讓財務專業人士能透過系統的協助，有效率地由大量財務文本中獲得有意義的財務資訊。此外，系統會依照公司的財報發布日期動態呈現股票交易資訊與後設資料，以利使用者依股價的時間走勢比較財務文字型與數值型資料的關係。 / The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate the risk of financial report of listed companies in sentence-level. Most of past sentiment analysis studies focused on word-level risk detection. However, most financial keywords are highly context-sensitive, which may likely yield biased results. Therefore, to advance the understanding of financial textual information, this thesis broadens the analysis from word-level to sentence level. We use two sentence-level models, fastText and Siamese-CBOW, to learn sentence embedding and attempt to facilitate the financial risk detection. In our experiment, we use the 10-K corpus and a financial sentiment dataset which were labeled by financial professionals to train our financial risk classifier. Moreover, we adopt the Bag-of-Word model as a baseline and use accuracy, precision, recall and F1-score to evaluate the performance of financial risk prediction. The experimental results show that the embedding models could lead better performance than the Bag-of-word model. In addition, this paper proposes a web-based financial risk detection system which is constructed based on fastText and Siamese CBOW model called RiskFinder. There are total 40,708 financial reports inside the system and each risk-related sentence is highlighted based on different sentence embedding models. Besides, our system also provides metadata and a visualization of financial time-series data for the corresponding company according to release day of financial report. This system considerably facilitates case studies in the field of finance and can be of great help in capturing valuable insight within large amounts of textual information.

M.Com. (Financial Economics) / This study investigates the best measure of extreme losses in the South African equity derivatives market, and applies this to estimate the size of a default fund for Safcom, the central counterparty (CCP) for exchange-traded derivatives in South Africa. The predictive abilities of historic simulation Value at Risk (VaR), Conditional VaR (CVaR), Extreme VaR (EVaR) calculated using a Generalised Extreme Value (GEV) distribution and stress testing are compared during historic periods of stress in this market. The iterative cumulative sum of squares (ICSS) algorithm of Inclan and Tiao (1994) is applied to identify significant and large, positive shifts in the volatility of returns, thus indicating the start of a stress period. The FTSE/JSE Top 40 Index Future (known as the ALSI future) is used as a proxy for this market. Two key periods of stress are identified, namely the 1997 Asian crisis and the 2008 global financial crisis. The maximum daily losses in the ALSI during these stress periods were observed on 28 October 1997 and 6 October 2008. For the VaR-based loss estimates, 2500 trading days’ returns up to 28 October 1997 and 2750 trading days’ returns up to 6 October 2008 is used. The study finds that Extreme VaR predicts extreme losses during these two historic periods of stress the most accurately and is consequently applied to the quantification of a default fund for Safcom, using 2500 daily returns from 5 June 2003 to 31 May 2013. The EVaR-based estimation of a default fund shows that the current Safcom default fund is sufficient to provide for market losses equivalent to what was suffered during the 2008 global financial crisis, but not sufficient for the magnitude of losses suffered during the 1997 Asian crisis.

Banks play a pivotal role in the economic growth and development of countries, primarily through the diversification of risk for both themselves and other economic agents. Interest rate risk is regarded as one of the most prominent financial risks faced by a bank. A large portion of private banks’ revenue stems from net interest income that is generated from the difference between various assets and liabilities that are held on the balance sheet. Fluctuations in the interest rate can alter a bank’s interest income and value, making interest rate risk management vital to its success. The asset and liability committee of a bank is the internal committee charged with the duty of managing the bank’s interest rate risk exposure through the use of various hedging strategies and instruments. This thesis uses a case study methodology to analyse GBS Mutual Bank interest rate risk management. Its specific business circumstances, balance sheet structure and the market conditions over a specified period are used to comment on the practicality of a variety of balance sheet positioning strategies and derivative hedging instruments. The thesis also provides recommendations for the bank’s asset and liability committee in terms of its functions and organisation. It is elucidated that the most practical balance sheet hedging strategies are a volume strategy and immunisation, while the most practical derivative hedging instruments are interest rate futures and interest rate collars. It is found that the bank has a well functioning asset and liability committee whose only encumbrance to its functionality is the inadequacy of the informational technology used to measure, control and manage its interest rate risk position. This thesis concludes by summarising the practicality of the various interest rate risk hedging alternatives available to the GBS Mutual Bank. Implementing a particular strategy or instrument depends, of course, on its asset and liability committee’s decision.

ESG (Environmental, social, and governance) investing is an investment philosophy to inform holistic and sound decision-making of investors for the purposes of both, nourishing a stable economy with acceptable rates of return while at the same time addressing stakeholders' non-financial concerns to preserve an inhabitable planet. Some scholars in finance argue that institutions subject to norms, i.e. responsible investors pay a financial cost from engaging in ESG activities. Moreover, they see ESG investing as distracting, inappropriate, risky and legally challenging. In response, several studies have emerged to show that ESG investing is a growing interest with investors, helps to mitigate financial risks, and does not need to represent a financial cost. Despite convincing evidence in a growing body of academic literature, many questions are still open to debate. Therefore, the principal objective of this thesis is to explore three dimensions of ESG investing, namely corporate environmental responsibility, renewable energy, and ESG disclosure quality. The research questions address issues relating to pension funds' investment decisions and legal obstacles resulting from utilising ESG information, financial return and risk implications of investing in renewable energy, substitutability of renewable energy for fossil fuel investments, and the effects of ESG disclosure quality on the expected cost of capital. To answer these questions, the thesis employs several standard and alternative empirical methods from the asset pricing and risk literatures. The thesis concludes the following. First, the integration of environmental responsibility into pension fund investment decision-making processes does not impede the financial and risk performance of pension funds. This means that pension funds should be allowed to consider such information in their investment decision making processes as the information does not reduce the overall financial return of the tested portfolios and does not violate trust law, i.e. the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Pension fund trustees have been prohibited to consider any non-financial criteria such as environmental, social, or governance criteria in their investment processes under trust law such as ERISA, when they could harm the finanical performance of the portfolio. To be more specific, a pension fund trustee breaches his fiduciary duties (the duty of loyalty and the duty of prudence), if he sacrifices the financial well-being of the pension fund for pursuing any other social goal (Langbein and Posner, 1980). In particular, the duty of loyalty is "... forbidding the trustee to invest for any object other than the highest return consistent with the preferred level of portfolio risk" (Langbein and Posner, 1980:98). Second, the thesis finds no evidence for sustained renewable energy equity premia. Furthermore, investments in renewable energy equity are considerably riskier than in fossil fuel energy equity, meaning that renewable energy firms are undergoing a period of high uncertainties related to their business model, low carbon prices, and lacking public and private infrastructure investment (Bohl et al., 2013; Kumar et al., 2012; Sadorsky, 2012b ). Finally, my thesis shows that companies with high ESG disclosure quality experience lower expected cost of equity and cost of debt financing, everything else equal.