Policy support in promoting green bonds in Asia: empirical evidence

Abstract

Many economies, especially in Asia, implement different policies to incentivize the issuance of corporate green bonds. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the effectiveness of green bond policies. This study examines the impact of a broad range of green bond policies on the issuance of corporate green bonds in 56 green-bond-issuing economies, including 11 economies in Asia, from January 2010 to June 2020. Using the difference-in-difference specification within the multilevel probit model, the study shows that the following policies increase the probability of issuance of green bonds by corporates: (i) policies that reduce the cost of green bond issuance, such as green bond grants and tax incentives (such policies are particularly popular in Asia); (ii) coordination policies such as the establishment of green bond or green finance institutions, committees, groups, as well as other policy signals such as national commitments and targets; and (iii) global international cooperation and international standardization.