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This paper examines the dynamic linkages among economic policy uncertainty (EPU), the green bond market, the carbon market, and the macroeconomy using the time-varying parameter vector autoregressive (TVP-VAR) model with monthly data spanning from January 2016 to December 2021. Additionally, it assesses the robustness and accuracy of the empirical results through the Bayesian vector autoregressive (BVAR) model. The findings indicate that EPU negatively affects the green bond market in the short term but has a positive impact in the medium and long term. Conversely, EPU has a positive impact on the carbon market in the short term but a negative impact in the medium and long term. Furthermore, the green bond market negatively influences the carbon market in both the short and medium to long term. These results suggest that emerging markets, such as the green bond and carbon markets, are influenced by EPU. The adverse impact of the green bond market on the carbon market, however, contributes to expediting China's attainment of its low-carbon objectives. Appropriate economic policies can play a vital role in accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy. The study also reveals that the US-China trade war has expedited the development of green capital markets in China, despite its impact on the green economic transition in the country. These findings provide insights for the government and investors to formulate suitable strategies for risk mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to effectively reduce CO2 emissions by examining the impact of three distinct incentive and constraint policies on the quality of rating and certification information in China's green bond issuance market. To accomplish this, the government has implemented incentives, while regulators have introduced constraints to curb the spread of inflated rating and certification information. We build on the integrated rating and certification regulation mechanism by presenting a two-stage Stackelberg game model that involves four key participants: the China Securities Regulatory Commission, local governments, green evaluation and certification agencies, and credit rating agencies. We incorporate environmental effects indicators into the expected utility of rating and certification agencies to investigate the equilibrium conditions under three policy scenarios: a single financial incentive policy, a single regulatory constraint policy, and a combined incentive and constraint policy. The paper employs Stackelberg game theory to analyze how different policies mitigate the occurrence of "inflated" ratings and "greenwashing" in certifications. Numerical analysis is conducted to validate the theoretical findings. Moreover, we assess the impact of these policies on the quality of rating and evaluation information, using data from China's green bond issuance market between 2016 and 2021. Our research offers valuable management insights and regulatory recommendations for both regulators and local governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the blue economy development in The Bahamas with an analysis of the conditions for using blue bonds as a financing mechanism. As part of the activities to be pursued for the issuance of a blue bond, the paper provides an identification of investment projects that could be financed through blue bonds. In addition to its blue economy activities, the government seeks to enhance the coastal ecosystems' resilience and their capacity to reduce the effects of strong climatic events following the Dorian Hurricane in September 2019. In this context, investments in the protection and restoration of ecosystems that increase public goods are therefore needed, especially in the context of the 30 × 30 target. The paper furthermore highlights the key challenges The Bahamas is facing for the development of suitable blue financial mechanisms, including the need for a robust institutional framework to ensure an efficient implementation of a blue financing scheme. By explicitly reflecting on the challenges for a country like the Bahamas, the paper seeks to provide a realistic account of the role and potential of bonds for financing sustainable development in marine environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper expands traditional stochastic volatility models by allowing for time-varying skewness without imposing it. While dynamic asymmetry may capture the likely direction of future asset returns, it comes at the risk of leading to overparameterization. Our proposed approach mitigates this concern by leveraging sparsity-inducing priors to automatically select the skewness parameter as dynamic, static or zero in a data-driven framework. We consider two empirical applications. First, in a bond yield application, dynamic skewness captures interest rate cycles of monetary easing and tightening and is partially explained by central banks' mandates. In a currency modeling framework, our model indicates no skewness in the carry factor after accounting for stochastic volatility. This supports the idea of carry crashes resulting from volatility surges instead of dynamic skewness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investing in green bonds has been recognized as a strategy that not only promotes environmental performance but also offers attractive investment returns. However, macroeconomic factors, such as geopolitical risk (GPR), climate policy uncertainty (CPU), and global economic policy uncertainty (GEPU), play a substantial role in shaping green bond returns. Using the returns of US green bonds as a proxy for the returns of green bonds, we argue in this paper that these heterogenous uncertainty measures might have asymmetric impacts on the returns of green bonds (GB). By employing monthly data from January 2016 to August 2022, we apply the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lags model (NARDL) to examine the asymmetric impact of these heterogenous uncertainty measures on the returns of GB. The NARDL findings reveal evidence of short-run asymmetric impacts of GPR, GEPU, and CPU on the returns of green bonds. In the long run, there is an asymmetric impact of GPR and CPU on the returns of GB. However, there is a symmetric impact of CPU on the returns of GB in the long run. Specifically, in the short run, we found that a positive CPU shock causes a decline in the returns of green bonds. A similar magnitude of negative CPU shock causes an increase in the returns of green bonds. Moreover, a positive shock to GPR increases the return of green bonds, while a comparable negative shock to GPR reduces the return of GB. Furthermore, only negative shocks to GEPU have an impact on GB returns in the short run. Specifically, a negative GEPU shock reduces GB returns. In the long term, the returns of GB are positively impacted by negative shocks in GPR and both positive and negative shocks in GEPU, whereas positive shocks in GPR affect the returns of GB negatively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Rhino Bond is the first financial instrument dedicated to protecting a species. The Bond allows investors to invest in the conservation of the black rhinoceros Diceros bicornis , with the amount of money returned by the investment depending on whether rhinoceros numbers increase (and by how much). In this paper we focus on how the Bond was brought into being. We draw on an analysis of organizational reports along with data collected from interviews with key informants to investigate the roles of the various stakeholders in the Bond, how species and sites were selected, the motivations and experiences of the stakeholders and the involvement of stakeholders in decision-making. We found that although conservation actors are attracted by the potential for new funding, they have experienced challenges navigating complex financial instruments. The needs of financial actors often dictated decision-making, with implications for the species and sites chosen for the Bond. As profits are tied to an increase in population size of a specific species (which needs to be monitored), the instrument has favoured large and easily counted species and populations. Only some sites were able to meet the stringent conditions of financial instruments, including metrics on financial sustainability. We argue that the dominance of financial principles and motives means that not all species or sites will be viable candidates for investment and that conservation finance should not be seen as a panacea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Could the European Union mitigate the negative effects of economic, pandemic and environmental crises using only one tool? The answer is positive, by implementing "green" fiscal expansion financed by "green" common debt, such as issuing green bonds. In this paper, we connect the independent responses to different crises into a single response that could end them. The European Union's theoretical background is based on new-classical models, but current research findings doubt new-classical orthodoxy, underling the importance of economic federalism for sustainable economic and green growth. We argue that the Economic and Monetary Union has to speed up fiscal federalism by establishing a powerful European Union common budget using green Eurobonds and implementing fiscal transfers as a mechanism to address the consequences of the triple crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to study the influence of the current regulatory environment on the investment decisions of sustainability-oriented institutional investorswithin theGerman-speaking region of Europe. Through the use of a structured questionnaire, aimed at institutional investors, this paper presents detailed insights into the preferences of investors when purchasing green bonds, bonds that contribute to reducing or preventing adverse effects stemming fromclimate change. After analysing our sample of 179 participants, it is demonstrated that the credibility of a green bond is a basic prerequisite for an investor to purchase such an instrument. Additionally, the attractiveness of green bonds is influenced by financial factors such as tax incentives as well as the interest rate environment. Furthermore, this paper studies the influence of environmental, social and governance (esg) strategies on green bond investment decisions, where it is revealed that the environmental pillar is the most important for investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial markets have the potential to magnify the adverse impacts of carbon-intensive assets, mainly in the case of a swift and unforeseen shift toward a low-carbon economy. Given that green bonds are already in the process of standardization and actively support the funding of environmental goals, this paper aims to explore their relationship with the European banking system. To achieve this objective, we utilize a cross-quantilogram approach, analyzing daily data gathered from July 2014 to January 2021 and examining bi-directional dependence. Our unique contribution lies in revealing the relationships between the green bond index and the stock market dynamics of European banks compared to their relationships with conventional stock market indices, which is a novel endeavor to the best of our knowledge. The results are consistent with prior research findings regarding the relationships between the green bond index and various companies and financial assets. These results confirm that other financial instruments impact green bonds, whereas the influence exerted by green bonds on other assets is minimal. Additionally, our study provides evidence indicating that the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the connections between these financial assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper selects the data of corporate bond from 2005 to 2019, then divides them into long term bond and short term bond according to maturity of bond. Climate risk is found have significant impact on long term bond yield. Climate risk has no significant impact on short term bond yield. Callability has significant effect on both long term and short term bond yield, while callability has large effect on short term bond and relatively small effect on long term bond. The resale has significant effect on both long term and short term bond yield. The significant effect of the resale on short term bond yield explains large part of the short term bond yield. Issuance has significant impact on both long term and short term bond, with larger impact on short term bond yield. Maturity has significant effect on the yield of both long term and short term bond, and the effect is larger for short term bond. Bearish sentiment is negatively and significantly related to long term bond yield, but has no significant effect on short term bond yield. Credit ratings have large impact on long term bond yield and explain large part of this. However, credit ratings have no significant effect on short term bond yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses time series data to analyze the impact of climate risk and other factors on the yields of government bonds and non-government bonds. The results show that the impact of climate risk on government bond yields is much greater than that on non-government bond yields. Issuance has an effect on both government bond yields and non-government bond yields, but has a smaller effect on government bond yields and a larger effect on non-government bond yields. Duration has a bigger effect on government bond yields than on non-government bonds. The main reason is that the maturity of non-government bonds is generally shorter, while the maturity of government bonds is relatively longer. Credit risk has a much bigger impact on non-government bond yields. Because government bonds have little credit risk, default rates are low. Non-government bond's credit risk is relatively large with high default risk. Whether government bonds are traded across markets or not has a big impact on government bonds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wafer-level direct bonding technology is a key process for the production of backside illuminated (BSI) CMOS image sensor (CIS). Usually, constant-depth mode scanning acoustic microscope (C-SAM) 300mm wafer images are acquired and defect size distribution is provided to monitor defects that degrade bonding yield. This acquisition technique is used as it is nondestructive and is able to capture the full wafer. Current solutions are not providing information detailed enough to identify the root cause of this degradation. A consequence is that most measurements and classification is currently done manually which take time and have reproducibility issues. In this paper, we propose a rule-based method for the classification of the defects and automatic segmentation of the defects to extract precise measurements depending on the type of defect. The classes of defects are precisely defined based on their origin in the process. All these information will allow to reduce the time to analyze the images and improve the precision and consistency of the analysis. These results will allow to identify more precisely the defects thus the causes of yield degradation during bonding process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to formulate new theories of sustainable finance, meeting a need to establish a set of propositions that can help us understand the behaviour and actions of economic agents towards sustainable finance. The paper used a literature survey to establish a theoretical relationship between sustainable finance and the actions of economic agents. The paper proposed six theories of sustainable finance, namely, the priority theory of sustainable finance, the resource theory of sustainable finance, the peer emulation theory of sustainable finance, the life span theory of sustainable finance, the positive signalling theory of sustainable finance, and the system disruption theory of sustainable finance. These theories offer believable explanations for the behaviour and actions of economic agents towards sustainable finance. Academics, policy makers, economists, researchers and students will find these theories very useful in their work in sustainable finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper comprehensively analyzes the overall status of the green bond market in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) for the renewable energy sector. Our results show that, in most cases, issuers are non-financial corporations. Also, despite LAC's low perception of transparency, 78% of the volume issued has been externally reviewed. In general terms, the barriers imposed on issuance by local governments, mainly municipal debt ceiling, low credit rating and solvency, limited capabilities to prepare bankable projects, and lack of communication channels between the financial sector and local governments, constrain the green bond market in LAC. Furthermore, although the presence of development institutions that promote the issuance of green bonds in the renewable sector has improved in recent years, it is mandatory to continue making progress in this area. For that purpose, closer cooperation and alliances are essential to share responsibilities and knowledge in LAC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with a credit derivative pricing problem using the martingale approach. We generalize the conventional reduced-form credit risk model for a credit default swap market, assuming that the firms' default intensities depend on the default states of counterparty firms and that the stochastic interest rate follows a jump-diffusion Cox–Ingersoll–Ross process. First, we derive the joint Laplace transform of the distribution of the vector process (r t , R t) by applying piecewise deterministic Markov process theory and martingale theory. Then, using the joint Laplace transform, we obtain the explicit pricing of defaultable bonds and a credit default swap. Lastly, numerical examples are presented to illustrate the dynamic relationships between defaultable securities (defaultable bonds, credit default swap) and the maturity date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we collect data of corporate bonds and government bonds issued from 2005 to 2019 from CSMAR database. Firstly, we make a stepwise regression analysis and research on the impact of climate risk, selling back and cross-market transaction on corporate bond yield. The impact of climate risk on corporate bond yield is positive because if carbon dioxide emission is more, the earth will be warmer and sea levels will be higher, then companies will face more climate risks and corporate bond yields will increase. The impact from the selling back on corporate bond yield is negative because if the bond can be resold, the risk will be lower and the bond yield will decrease. The impact of cross-market transaction on corporate bond yields is positive because if corporate bonds cannot be traded, the liquidity of corporate bonds will be low, and the risk will increase, then corporate bond yield will increase. Secondly, logarithmic regression analysis of climate risk factors shows that the climate risk is still significant and the model fits well. Selling back, cross-market trading and other factors are significant, and the pattern is more significant. Compared with the original model, it can better explain corporate bond yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the impact of climate risk on the yields of corporate bonds with different credit ratings. We find the impact of climate risk on AAA rated corporate bonds. When climate risk increases, the yield of AAA rated corporate bonds increases. But it explains only a tiny fraction of corporate bond yields. The model is more significant after taking the logarithm of climate risk. After maturity is added to the model, both the impact from climate risk and from maturity on the yield of AAA rated corporate bonds is significant. But the impact of climate risk on AA+ corporate bond yields is not significant and the impact of selling back on the yield of AA+ corporate bonds is significant and negative. When the selling back increases, the yield of AA+ corporate bonds decrease. The impact from the issuance on the yield of AA+ corporate bonds is significant and positive. When the issuance increases, the yield of AA+ corporate bonds increase. For AA rated corporate bonds, the impact from the independent variables on the yield of AA rated corporate bonds is not significant. Model does not hold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the Wiener index and the hyper-Wiener index of the Kragujevac trees is computed in term of its vertex degrees. As application, we obtain an upper bond and a lower bound for the Wiener index and the hyper-Wiener index of these trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate the performance of low-volatility portfolio strategies representing risk aversion after the 2008 global financial crisis. Five investment portfolios were built by taking into consideration the weight distribution criteria defined by the inverse of the standard deviation of assets, the natural logarithm and exponential of these values, as well as the minimum variance and tangent portfolios, based on the S&P 500 futures index, dollar futures index, US government long-term bond (10-year Treasury Bond) and gold futures. The design of the strategies used both twelve- and thirty-month rolling windows for the standard deviation and conditional volatility estimates. Mean return of portfolio, risk through standard deviation, Sharpe index, and risk-adjusted return were calculated for evaluation purposes. Results have evidenced that, together, risk-based portfolios using 12-month rolling window or conditional volatility were superior to the tangent portfolio, as well as that the minimum variance portfolio was competitive to other alternatives. The main contribution of the current study lies in the fact that risk aversion was relevant to portfolios' performance in the post-crisis period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of the financial repercussions of low-carbon policy has focused mainly on stocks, leaving bonds out of the picture. The objective of this paper is to assess the impact of low-carbon policy upon European bond returns. This is done by extending the Fama and French two factor model for bonds with an EU-ETS participation factor: GMC (Green minus Carbon). This paper makes four contributions. Firstly, it provides a statistically highly significant measure of the sensitivity of bond portfolio returns to the GMC factor. Secondly, it shows the presence of a green premium in the European bond market in between 2008 and 2018. Thirdly, evidence is found that the addition of an environmental factor improves the performance of the original model. Fourthly, the carbon stress test put forward is able to indicate the effects of a plausible but more severe average EU-ETS carbon price on bond returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By swapping out atoms for vertices and bonds for edges, a graph may be used to model any molecular structure. A graph G is considered to be a chemical graph in graph theory if no vertex of G has a degree of 5 or greater. The bond incident degree (BID) index for a chemical graph G is defined as the total of contributions f (d G (u) , d G (v)) from all edges u v of G, where d G (w) stands for the degree of a vertex w of G, E (G) is the set of edges of G, and f is a real-valued symmetric function. This paper addresses the problem of finding graphs with extremum BID indices over the class of all chemical graphs of a fixed number of edges and vertices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sulfamates are widespread in numerous pharmacologically active molecules. In this paper, Silver/Bathophenanthroline catalyzed the intramolecular selective amination of primary C(sp3)−H bonds and secondary C(sp3)−H bonds of sulfamate esters, to produce cyclic sulfamates in good yields and with a high site-selectivity. DFT calculations revealed that the interaction between sulfamates and L10 makes the molecule more firmly attached to the catalyst, benefiting the catalysis reaction. The in vitro anticancer activity of the final products was evaluated in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large corporations usually cover their capital and operating expenses by issuing bonds with fixed rates and different maturities. This paper proposes a multistage stochastic programming (MSP) model with multiple objectives to optimize bond issuance by satisfying the three common objectives of corporate managers, as follows: (i) Minimizing expected discounted cost under cash liquidity and financial leverage risk constraints. (ii) Minimizing financial leverage risk under expected discounted cost and cash liquidity risk constraints. (iii) Minimizing cash liquidity risk under expected discounted cost and financial leverage risk constraints. We measure liquidity risk as conditional payment-at-risk (C P a R), according to the corporation's financial characteristics. Financial leverage risk is captured by conditional financial leverage-at-risk C F L a R , which we design based on conditional value-at-risk (C V a R). Through empirical analysis of a company in China, we explore the efficient frontier curves for the three above objectives and provide the corresponding issuance compositions of an optimal bond portfolio. Our MSP model offers guidance for corporations on achieving a trade-off between cost and risk when issuing corporate bonds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at the whole-process tracking audit problem of "special bonds + PPP" mode (hereinafter referred to as "special bonds + PPP") in public infrastructure construction projects and establishes an audit evaluation prediction model based on the theory and method of machine learning. Firstly, based on expert interviews and the actual working process of "special bonds + PPP," the comprehensive evaluation index system of the whole process tracking audit is established. Secondly, innovate audit technology methods and apply machine learning theories and methods such as support vector machine, back propagation neural network, multinomial logistic regression, and random forest to the whole tracking audit of "special bonds + PPP." Finally, the real case evaluation sample data are selected, and the four established models, that is, SVM, BP, Multinom, and RF, are trained and predicted. After comparative analysis, the RF model with the highest accuracy is selected as the evaluation prediction model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper selects weekly transaction data from the Shenzhen Exchange and Shanghai Exchange for 2012 to 2018 to investigate factors including corporate size, the ration of book-to-market, default risk, term and credit rating that influence the corporate bond spread. It can be concluded that small firms prefer to issue high yield spread bonds while large firms issue bonds with low yield spreads. High (low) book-to-market firms issue high (low) yield spread bonds. The most important factors influencing corporate bond spread yield are default risk, terms, and credit ratings. We suggest that China Securities Regulatory Commission should encourage small firms to issue corporate bonds and there should be more kinds of credit ratings bonds in China bond market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a defaultable bonds pricing model extending the traditional spread process definition. The posited model is able to incorporate any potential cyclical, non-linear, or long-term process not fully captured by the stochastic behavior of the spot rate and the instantaneous default rate process. Under this framework, we analyze the empirical ability of our model to capture the spread dynamics of three different Investment-grade US Corporate bonds indexes. Our findings show that when compared to the Benchmark, our model improves the empirical performance reducing the yield spread mispricing by 35%, 37%, and 29% for the High grade, Upper medium grade, and Lower medium grade index, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of multidimension liquidity, credit risk, and the interaction between liquidity and credit risk on corporate bond spreads based on a large transaction data set from July, 2006 to June, 2016, including the monthly data of 3716 bonds in China. Our main findings reveal that liquidity premiums are the main parts of corporate bond spreads. The interaction between liquidity and credit risk plays a significant role in determining corporate bond spreads. In addition, the differences between the interbank market and the exchange market have a significant impact on corporate bond spreads in normal period, and the interaction between liquidity and credit risk has an enhanced impact on corporate bond spreads during financial crisis. We also find that the interaction between liquidity and credit risk will increase with the increase of liquidity risk and credit risk and it is a time-varying dynamic process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the tail dependence and risk spillovers from the oil and gas to high-yield (HY) and investment grade (IG) bond markets. We use time-varying optimal copula framework to examine the dependence and further quantify upside and downside risk spillovers. We also explore how energy futures can be used to hedge risk of HY and IG bond portfolios. Our results show that the bond returns are more sensitive to risk shocks in the oil market compared to gas market. We find both negative and positive tail dependence between the bond and energy pairs and the relationship is stronger during the oil-crunch period. The dependence however is asymmetric across the tails. Finally, compared to oil futures, gas futures are found to be better hedge for the bond investment. These results can help in managing portfolio risk and designing optimal asset allocation strategies. These might also assist in formulating policies and regulations to manage the effects of cross-market risk transmissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A bond incident degree (BID) index of a graph G is defined as ∑ u v ∈ E G f d G u , d G v , where d G w denotes the degree of a vertex w of G , E G is the edge set of G , and f is a real-valued symmetric function. The choice f d G u , d G v = a d G u + a d G v in the aforementioned formula gives the variable sum exdeg index SEI a , where a ≠ 1 is any positive real number. A cut vertex of a graph G is a vertex whose removal results in a graph with more components than G has. A graph of maximum degree at most 4 is known as a molecular graph. Denote by V n , k the class of all n -vertex graphs with k ≥ 1 cut vertices and containing at least one cycle. Recently, Du and Sun [AIMS Mathematics, vol. 6, pp. 607–622, 2021] characterized the graphs having the maximum value of SEI a from the set V n k for a > 1. In the present paper, we not only characterize the graphs with the minimum value of SEI a from the set V n k for a > 1 , but we also solve a more general problem concerning a special type of BID indices. As the obtained extremal graphs are molecular graphs, they remain extremal if one considers the class of all n -vertex molecular graphs with k ≥ 1 cut vertices and containing at least one cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the angle of research and development (R&D) input, this paper analyzes how bond financing affects corporate total factor productivity (TFP). Based on the 2007–2019 data on listed enterprises, the influence and action mechanism of bond financing on corporate TFP were empirically examined. The results show that bond financing significantly boosts corporate TFP. The mechanism analysis reveals that bond financing promotes TFP by stimulating corporate R&D input. The research sheds new light on the relationship between finance and TFP from the perspective of bond financing and provides a reference for policymakers to boost corporate TFP by promoting bond financing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), including mental health, have become a major concern in low- and middle-income countries. Despite increased attention to them over the past decade, progress toward addressing NCDs has been slow. A lack of bold policy commitments has been suggested as one of the contributors to limited progress in NCD prevention and management. However, the policies of key global actors (bilateral, multilateral, and not-for-profit organisations) have been understudied.Methods: This study aimed to map the key global actors investing in action regarding NCDs and review their policies to examine the articulation of priorities regarding NCDs. Narrative synthesis of 70 documents and 31 policy papers was completed, and related to data collated from the Global Health Data Visualisation Tool.Results: In 2019 41% of development assistance for health committed to NCDs came from private philanthropies, while that for other global health priorities from this source was just 20%. Through a range of channels, bilateral donors were the other major source of NCD funding (contributing 41% of NCD funding). The UK and the US were the largest bilateral investors in NCDs, each contributing 8%. However, NCDs are still under-prioritised within bilateral portfolios - receiving just 0.48% of US funding and 1.66% of the UK. NGOs were the key channels of funding for NCDs, spending 48% of the funds from donors in 2019. The reviewed literature generally focused on NCD policies of WHO, with policies of multilateral and bilateral donors given limited attention. The analysis of policies indicated a limited prioritisation of NCDs in policy documents. NCDs are framed in the policies as a barrier to economic growth, poverty reduction, and health system sustainability. Bilateral donors prioritise prevention, while multilateral actors offer policy options for NCD prevention and care. Even where stated as a priority, however, funding allocations are not aligned.Conclusion: The growing threat of NCDs and their drivers are increasingly recognised. However, global actors' policy priorities and funding allocations need to align better to address these NCD threats. Given the level of their investment and engagement, more research is needed into the role of private philanthropies and NGOs in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the green bond market has seen significant growth as a means of financing environmentally-friendly projects. While much research has focused on pricing, limited attention has been given to green bond investors. This paper analyzes the preferences of different investor groups for green bonds and introduces the term "green bond preferred habitat". Conceptually, green bond preferred habitat investors hold green bonds disproportionally and display lower price elasticity than other investors. This study combines information from 2693 unique green bonds with confidential bond-level portfolio holdings data from the ECB over the period 2016-Q4 to 2022-Q4, covering more than 12 million observations. The results demonstrate that European investors, particularly mutual funds and pension funds, show a high demand for green bonds. In contrast, insurance corporations tend to avoid green bonds. Our findings show that the demand for green bonds among mutual funds and pension funds is price inelastic, while banks and insurance corporations display an elastic demand. These findings are robust for potential endogeneity concerns when we apply matching techniques, are stronger for domestic green bonds, and also apply to sustainability-linked bonds. These results on the divergence in investor demand are important for green bond issuers because firms and governments issue green bonds to cater certain investors willing to sacrifice returns. One theoretical implication is that if green bond preferred habitat is sufficiently strong, it creates a price wedge due to their high demand for green bonds which explains the existence of a greenium. • Green bond markets have grown significantly in recent years, expanding to over two trillion euros in market size by the end of 2022. While the market has expanded, relatively little is known about who holds green bonds. • Using granular bond-level data from the ECB securities holdings statistics (SHS-S) we aim to fill this gap by showing that European investors invest 3.7% of their bond portfolio in green bonds, while green bonds represent only 1.5% of the total bonds outstanding value. • In particular, we show that mutual funds and pension funds invest disproportionally in green bonds and that their holdings are very price insensitive, which fits into our proposed theoretical framework of "green bond preferred habitat". By contrast and surprisingly, European insurance corporations shun green bonds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With growing attention and concern regarding green instruments, in this paper, we test for the dynamic connectedness of green cryptocurrencies, green investment, conventional commodities and equities using wavelet coherence and the effect of uncertainty on their co-movements from 2018 to 2023. Contrary to previous research, our findings reveal that green cryptocurrencies do not exhibit hedge or safe haven properties, instead behaving no differently than diversifiers. Furthermore, we show a significant influence of financial uncertainty on the interconnectedness between green cryptocurrencies and other assets, indicating heightened exposure during market turmoil. As a result, less emphasis on green cryptocurrencies portfolio weightings should be placed and greater emphasis on green bonds and gold at time of financial distress. Their limited risk-reducing potential should also be considered for regulatory frameworks. Additionally, we note the similarities between green cryptocurrencies and conventional counterparts, evidenced by their dynamic homogeneity with Bitcoin and Ethereum, suggesting synchronization. Consequently, conventional cryptocurrencies could serve as proxies for green counterparts in portfolio management strategies. These findings contribute to the understanding of green cryptocurrency dynamics and have implications for investment decision-making and risk management strategies in sustainable finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green bonds have developed rapidly, over a short period, in China's capital market, making it the world's largest green bond market. However, there is little empirical literature on China's green bond market growth drivers. This paper uses structural equation models to explain the driving factors and mechanism of the top-down development model of China's green bond market. The findings indicate that the local economy and environmental governance impacts growth more in the green bond market, followed by the institutional environment. In contrast, policy support impacts were small and statistically insignificant. Meanwhile, the effects of the local economy and environmental governance are direct, and the institutional environment indirectly promotes economic development. These results suggest that the local economy and institutional and environmental governance are the main driving factors for China's green bond market's rapid development and the reasons for unbalanced regional distribution. Overall, the findings have practical implications for further promoting the coordinated development of the green bond market and building a green financial system. [Display omitted] • This paper attempts to explain the driving factor of the top-down development model of China's green bond market using SEM. • Found that the local economy and environmental governance have stronger impacts on growth in the green bond market. • Local economy and environmental governance effects are direct, and institutional environment has an indirect impact on GVOL. • Suggest that the local economy, and environmental governance are the main driving factors for the China's green bond market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the pricing implications of green bonds in the Chinese corporate bond market. We document a large greenium in the Chinese green bond market, whereby green bonds are issued at lower offering yield spreads in the primary market and traded at lower yields in the secondary market. The magnitude of the Chinese greenium is substantially greater than other international green bond markets. Exploring the underlying mechanisms, we document convincing evidence that mitigation of information asymmetry and exposure to salient environmental stimuli such as air pollution are plausible explanations of the greenium. • Green certification has pricing implications in the Chinese corporate bond market. • This study documents a greenium in the Chinese bond market. • Green bonds are issued at lower offering yield spreads in the primary market. • Green bonds are traded at lower yields in the secondary market. • The Chinese greenium is greater than other international green bond markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the pricing of green bonds in the Italian primary and secondary market and their implications for sustainability by investigating the effect that a green label has on a bond's spread through propensity score matching. From a sample of 420 fixed-rate, euro-denominated bonds priced at on the euro mid-swap from 2014 to the first half of 2021, bonds with a green label are matched with conventional bonds, to assess whether there is a significant difference in spreads between them. The results on the primary market show that green bonds' issuance spread is, on average, 35 to 40 basis points lower than that of comparable conventional bonds at a highly significance level. The spread discount seems to persist regardless of the issuer's sector, even with a difference in the magnitude, being remarkably higher for corporates. On the secondary market, the estimation results confirm the discount impact of the green label on the bonds' market spread, even if this impact is lower than at the issuance. This study aims at giving better coverage of the advantages green bonds are able to generate also in a relatively small and illiquid financial markets. Furthermore, we show that green bonds are effective instruments for issuers to achieve a lower cost of debt to finance green projects and for investors to support the transition to a greener and more sustainable economy. • Green bonds' issuance spread is, 35 to 40 basis points lower than that of comparable conventional bonds. • The spread discount seems to persist regardless of the issuer's market sector. • On the secondary market, the estimation results confirm the discount impact of the green label. • Discount is more significant for corporate issuers than financial issuers. • The discount impact is higher in the primary than in the secondary market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition to a low-carbon economy to achieve the Paris Agreement goal requires substantial investments. The green bond market shows good potential to help mobilize financial sources towards sustainable investments. In this paper, we compare the uptake of green bonds in Norway and Sweden from 2013 till 2019, with the aim to understand what drives the green bond market. Our study is one of the first comparative analyses specifically designed to explain differences in green bond uptake between two similar financial markets. The analysis can help us to identify factors that are transferable to other countries and that therefore can be important for facilitating the growth of green bonds in different markets. Data shows that there has been a faster growth in issuances in Sweden than Norway, and especially for the corporate sector and municipalities. When interviewing experienced green bond market participants in Norway and Sweden, we find that likely explanations are a business culture and financial institutions more focused on sustainability in Sweden, as well as a larger and more diversified corporate sector. In Norway, green bonds uptake may have been hampered by competition with high yield investments in oil & gas and shipping, a 'green' energy sector that considers green bonds to be superfluous, and many municipalities that are too small for green bond issuance. The experience from Sweden indicates that other countries wanting to facilitate uptake of green bonds should emphasize leadership on sustainability, collaboration between green bond issuers and investors, and active communication, high visibility, and thorough disclosure of sustainable finance activities. • Both Norway and Sweden are pioneers on green bonds, but the market has grown faster in Sweden. • Business culture and financial institutions are more focused on sustainability in Sweden. • Sweden has a larger and more diversified corporate sector. • Leadership on sustainability and issuer-investor collaboration will facilitate green bonds. • Active communication and high visibility of green bonds activities will stimulate the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While clean energy assets have become new investment vehicles for market participants, their potential for diversification of traditional investments has not been fully explored in previous studies. To fill this void, this paper investigates whether diversifying into clean energy stocks or green bonds could reduce portfolio downside risk for investors holding dirty energy stocks or international equity indices. Specifically, the risks of equity portfolios are compared before and after they are blended with clean energy assets. The incremental impact on the portfolio risk profile is evaluated through variable weightings for clean energy assets. The persistence of diversification effects is then explored by changing the assessment period. Results show that both green bonds and clean energy stocks provide risk diversification benefits for investors with dirty energy stocks. However, green bonds reduce risk while clean energy stocks generally increase the risk of the international equity index portfolio. Further analysis indicates the robustness of the results for the recent COVID-19 period. The findings broaden the limited understanding of the risk reduction capacity of clean energy assets to conventional equities and provide useful implications for investors seeking to decarbonize their equities and portfolio managers designing optimal portfolios to hedge against downside risks. [Display omitted] • Risk reduction abilities of clean energy assets for traditional equity are examined. • Green bonds and clean energy stocks reduce the downside risk of dirty energy stocks. • Green bonds are a safe haven for international equity indices. • Clean energy stocks could increase the risks of international equity indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green bonds have increasingly been utilized around the world as a source of financing for renewable energy development, designed with compliance requirements and measurable economic returns to investors, while mitigating climate change. However, the efficacy of green bond arranged in the emerging economies for financing renewable energy assets and how the underlying risks are managed have remained to be explored. The paper aims to examine the evolving green financial system sponsored by both public and private institutions in managing such risks within China's emerging economy. A case study of green financing for a bundle of wind power assets led by a state-owned enterprise (SOE) reveals an alternative approach by structuring public–private collaboration while stipulating market-based financial incentives to institutional stakeholders under a political economy. This institutional consortium is composed of a state development bank, a commercial bank, credit rating agencies, institutional and private investors, regional power purchasers, and carbon trading entities. Financial stakeholders' risk in such emerging sustainable investment is moderated by these participating institutions and structured "upsides" from carbon trading aligned with the framework of green finance and standards for green bond development. The results reveal the potentials of scaling up the development of renewable energy by adequately managing and sharing key risks, while allocating substantial funding into renewable energy projects under such a green financial system that is to be complementary with a scalable post COVID-19 economic recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]