Credit spreads in the European green bond market: A daily analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic impact

Abstract

Financial crises and economic downturns provide a unique opportunity to investigate the behavior of investors and financial instruments and shed light in the market's anticipation of future economic growth. In view of the current crisis, we examine how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the European green bond market. Using daily data from Thomson Reuter's Refinitiv, we conducted event studies on corporate credit spread changes over the period from January 1 to December 31, 2020. Our results reveal that green bonds' credit spreads increased significantly after the start of the coronavirus outbreak. However, as the fear of the pandemic eased in response to positive news about the vaccines, green bonds' credit spreads fell below conventional bonds. Overall, green bonds showed a higher risk exposure and lower resilience to distress while profiting during an upside. Our paper provides the first evidence about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the announcement of vaccines' effectiveness on the European corporate green bond market. Our results suggest several key points that are relevant to both investors and issuers under the unprecedented conditions created by the pandemic.