Climate-Related Financial Risk: Insights from a Semisystematic Review of the Literature and Implications for Financial Reporting

Abstract

Synopsis The research problem This paper provides a semisystematic review of the literature on climate-related financial risk, with particular emphasis on whether that risk is adequately priced by financial markets and the implications of that risk assessment for financial reporting. Motivation This paper was motivated by a strong perception that financial markets have become increasingly exposed to the perils of climate change, and a concern for whether the rapid expansion of the literature on this topic sufficiently addresses financial markets’ correct pricing of the uncertainties inherent in these perils. Our particular goals were to understand the expansion of this literature, identify the originating and influential works that may have spurred this expansion, and provide new directions for research. The research question Our paper reviews the research on whether climate-related financial risk is adequately priced by the financial markets. Target population We examined a comprehensive sample of articles on climate-related financial risk published in the Financial Times’ Top 50 (FT50) accounting, finance, management, and business ethics journals over three decades, ending in 2022. Our analysis of the evolution of knowledge on climate-related financial risk also includes studies in non-FT50 journals (prior works) that may have spurred subsequent work in FT50 journals; non-FT50 journals (derivative works) that are inspired by the studies in FT50 journals; and set of studies that are similar to those in FT50 journals in terms of the topic (similar works) published in an array of non-FT50 journals. Adopted methodology We conducted a semisystematic review of knowledge flow based on bibliographic coupling, cocitation, and direct citation. Analyses We reviewed FT50 articles to examine the topics, methods, samples, and results. We compared FT50 articles with non-FT50 articles to explore their respective number of publications and average citations over time. We also examined the extent to which the FT50 and non-FT50 journals included accounting papers and the extent to which the top 20 papers, based on their impact (defined as the number of times a paper was considered an influential work by the FT50 journal papers), included accounting papers. Findings Compared to non-FT50 journals, we find that FT50 journals largely ignored climate-related financial risk until about 2010, and that the average citation of an FT50 publication was lower than a non-FT50 publication until around 2017. The fraction of FT50 and non-FT50 accounting journals publishing on climate-related financial risk remained low across all years. Moreover, the top 20 studies, based on their impact, included very few accounting papers. Our review of the content of the FT50 studies identifies traits of the literature that limit its generalizability, namely, a heavy emphasis on samples of U.S. corporations and the extensive use of association tests to develop the findings. Our review of the literature on the pricing effects of climate-related financial risk suggests that financial markets only partially price this risk and that fundamental questions relevant to policy remain unanswered.

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