Do Salient Climatic Risks Affect Shareholder Voting?
47 Pages Posted: 2 Aug 2021 Last revised: 24 Feb 2022
Date Written: February 22, 2022
Abstract
Shareholders in locations recently hit by hurricanes significantly increase their support for environmental proposals even if they never previously voted for similar initiatives. Our results show that changed perceptions of salient climate risks rather than firms’ fundamentals drive the increased support. More favorable voting following a hurricane strike has real consequences: Climate-related proposals are more likely to pass, and when they do, firm performance weakens. These findings highlight the role of investors’ climate-related risk preferences in altering their support for corporate environmental policies
Keywords: ESG, Shareholder Voting, Climate Change, Salience
JEL Classification: D72, G30, G41, Q54
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation