Carbon risk and corporate investment: A cross-country evidence

This paper investigates the effect of carbon risk on corporate investment using data from 41 countries for the period 2002-2017. There is strong evidence showing that the impact of carbon risk on corporate investment is negative and statistically significant. Carbon risk also reduces investment inefficiency. We find that carbon-intensive firms are affected more severely compared to carbon-non-intensive ones. Further, the effect depends on the level of a firm's financial constraints, where it is stronger in firms with financial constraints measured by firm size, age, KZ index, and dividend payout policy. Our findings remain consistent in several robustness tests.