Biodiversity management and stock price crash risk

Abstract

This study explores the link between corporate biodiversity management and the risk of sudden declines in future stock prices, an area largely overlooked in empirical research despite the societal significance of biodiversity loss. We posit that robust corporate biodiversity efforts mitigate the suppression of negative information, consequently reducing the risk of abrupt stock price declines. Leveraging a global dataset and innovative biodiversity management metrics from Moody's ESG Solutions (former Vigero Eiris), our multivariate regression analysis demonstrates that companies with stronger biodiversity structures and actions exhibit lower stock price crash risk. In an additional analysis, we focus on environmental inspections as a possible conduit for releasing negative information on biodiversity management. Using a subsample of North American firms that were inspected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), we find that firms which experience an inspection record an increase in their stock price crash risk.