Climate risks, environmental regulations, and corporate environmental management

Abstract

Scholars have shown an increased interest in studying impacts of environmental risks and opportunities on business firms. Across various strands of the literature on this topic, however, there is still sizeable theoretical and empirical ambiguity around the direction of their impacts and underlying causal mechanisms. As such, this dissertation aims to investigate how different environmental risks and opportunities, such as natural disasters and environmental regulations, affect business firms and their resulting environmental management strategies. The first of the three studies in this dissertation examines the effects of natural disasters on firm productivity. The second study investigates how air pollution policies impact labour productivity. The third study focuses on business responses to environmental compliance requirements and how these strategies affect firm innovation. Taken together, the studies in this dissertation contribute to the overall theme of climate risks, environmental regulations, and business firms. Each study extends the boundary of the theories on economic impacts of natural disasters (study 1), labour effects of environmental policies (study 2), and corporate environmental strategy (study 3). The studies also offer important practical insights for policymakers and managers with respect to decisions and policies involving the effects of environmental risks and opportunities on businesses. Show more