Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/239402 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Citation: 
[Journal:] Journal of Risk and Financial Management [ISSN:] 1911-8074 [Volume:] 13 [Issue:] 12 [Publisher:] MDPI [Place:] Basel [Year:] 2020 [Pages:] 1-22
Publisher: 
MDPI, Basel
Abstract: 
Amid growing concern over sustainability issues, there is increasing demand to incorporate environmental and social issues into assessments of credit risk, the possibility of loss resulting from a borrower's failure to meet their financial obligations. In this paper, we sought to identify empirical evidence of a relationship between sustainability measures and credit risk. We contribute to this literature in three main ways: firstly, by using a measure that considers the financial materiality of sustainability issues across different industries; secondly, by using corporate default swap (CDS) spreads as a market-based measure of credit risk; and thirdly, by exploring the context-dependent nature of the relationship. Though the extent differs across industries, our results suggest risk-reducing effects across several corporate sustainability dimensions: climate change; natural resource use; human capital and corporate governance. Furthermore, we found that country sustainability plays a moderating role in the nexus between corporate sustainability and credit risk. Hence, a one-size-fits-all policy may not be suitable in developing the credit-relevant standardization of sustainability factors. Nevertheless, the robustness of corporate governance throughout our findings suggests that corporations should strengthen governance frameworks and procedures prior to embarking on environmental and social objectives to mitigate credit risk.
Subjects: 
corporate social performance
environmental
social and governance
corporate financial performance
corporate default swaps
credit risk
country sustainability
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article

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