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Le coût implicite de la pollution industrielle imputé aux entreprises
Abstract
RÉSUMÉ
L’objet de la présente recherche est de quantifier l’incidence sur la valeur d’une entreprise de la prise en compte, par les investisseurs, de son bilan environnemental. Il est présumé qu’un coût implicite est imposé à chaque entreprise par les marchés boursiers selon la qualité de son bilan environnemental. Ce coût implicite n’apparaît pas aux états financiers de l’entreprise, mais son existence peut avoir des conséquences explicites sur sa performance financière future.
La relation statistique entre le bilan environnemental d’une firme, mesuré par son niveau de pollution, et sa valeur boursière est quantifiée au moyen de deux modèles de valorisation : un premier modèle est basé sur l’équation comptable fondamentale (bilan) et un second, sur le bénéfice comptable, alors considéré comme indice de valeur. L’échantillon comprend des entreprises canadiennes cotées à la Bourse en provenance de trois secteurs d’activité différents.
Pour les secteurs des pâtes et papiers, des produits chimiques et des raffineries, il apparaît que le marché attribue un coût implicite important à une mauvaise performance environnementale. Toutefois, pour le secteur de l’acier, des métaux et des mines, les résultats sont plus mitigés. En outre, il semble que le multiple de valorisation du bénéfice est plus élevé (plus faible) pour les entreprises (ne) se conformant (pas) aux normes environnementales.
Since it was first introduced 13 years ago in 2000, the UN Global Compact has become the world's largest voluntary corporate responsibility initiative. The benefits for companies that have voluntarily affiliated with the UN Global Compact have been little documented from an empirical perspective, especially regarding the integration of this information by capital markets. This study attempts to address this question, drawing on a sample of French companies listed on the SBF 250 index. Results suggest that, within the French context at least, investors significantly value a firm's affiliation with the UN Global Compact. In addition, the firms affiliated are those that appear to present the least risk.
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The earnings-price ratio is believed to capture the market’s assessment of the equity’s risk and earnings growth prospects. Prior research, however, has found that neither risk nor growth can explain persisting cross-sectional differences in earnings-price ratios. This paper shows that persisting cross-sectional differences in forecasted long-term earnings growth are the dominant source of variation in earnings-price ratios, and that the conclusions of prior research were due to the use of realized growth as a proxy for forecasted growth, since the two measures are not highly correlated. Other factors, such as risk (beta), forecasted short-term growth, and accounting method seem to be relatively less important in determining earnings-price ratios.
Event studies focus on the impact of particular types of firm-specific events on the prices of the affected firms' securities. In this paper, observed stock return data are employed to examine various methodologies which are used 111 event studies to measure security price performance. Abnormal performance is Introduced into this data. We find that a simple methodology based on the market model performs well under a wide variety of conditions. In some situations, even simpler methods which do not explicitly adjust for marketwide factors or for risk perform no worse than the market model. We also show how misuse of any of the methodologies can result in false inferences about the presence of abnormal performance.
Studies in environmental economics have tended to examine the impact of pollution performance on economic performance from a macro perspective. Management and accounting studies have focused on the short run. No real consensus has emerged from these studies taken as a whole as to the relationship between pollution performance and economic performance. In this study the economic impact of pollution performance is examined from a micro long-run perspective. Pollution is measured at the plant level and economic performance is measured both using the company as a whole and using just the segment specifically affected by pollution abatement. The analysis is done for both a 6-year and a 9-year time horizon.The association between three measures of pollution performance and five measures of economic performance for the company as a whole is tested using the Spearman rank correlation coefficients. To test the association between the pulp and paper segment and the three measures of pollution, two measures of economic performance were correlated with the pollution measures.The results indicate that the firms were not negatively impacted economically by abating water pollution in their pulp and paper mills. These results do not support the expectation that there would be a negative impact on the economic performance from pollution abatement activities of the firms. These findings are consistent with the finding of earlier studies. Furthermore, it may have policy implications when the US considers future environmental legislation.
For the RCRA and Superfund Acts, the publicly announced desired effects are the protection of the public and natural resources from, and ultimate cleanup of, hazardous waste materials. If the regulations are working, firms are being deterred from illegal disposal of wastes. If not, the regulations are providing only illusions of improved safety, while the public actually faces a never ending process of site discovery and cleanup. While not addressed in previous empirical literature, the deterrent effects of the RCRA and Superfund Acts are the focus of this paper. The deterrent effects of the RCRA and Superfund Acts stem from the potential for suits against responsible parties seeking an end to violations, site cleanup, and reimbursement for expenditures and damages. This paper measures the impact of hazardous waste mismanagement lawsuits on stockholder returns. Specifically, the standard event-study method is used to directly measure the abnormal losses suffered by stockholders associated with lawsuit filings and settlements between 1977 and 1986.
A decision of the US Supreme Court to require enforcement of an
environmental standard in the cotton textile industry provides a unique
opportunity to observe the market impact of social-cost disclosures.
This research examines the reaction of investors to an exogenous factor
which has an impact on a particular group of firms. A valuation-effects
paradigm is applied in the context of the standard market model to
evaluate the aggregate assessment of investors to the news that a costly
new Occupational Safety and Health Administration requirement would be
enforced. Risk-adjusted returns in a sample of cotton textile firms were
observed to decline as a negative investor revaluation occurred. To
determine if ex ante disclosure of the potential financial
impact of this new environmental standard affected announcement-period
market reaction, subsamples were developed on the basis of the type of
reporting provided. The results tend to support the view that market
pre-conditioning occurred. Differential impacts were observable, with
less negative investor reaction to quantitative disclosures than to
other types of information provided by sample companies. These results
suggest that emphasis should be placed on quantitative social-cost
disclosures, and that regulatory authorities might look more closely at
present disclosure guidelines to determine if they allow too much
reporting variability.
INTRODUCTION Since 1969 several legislative actions in the United States have been aimed at abating industrial pollution, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission has been engaged in developing pollution disclosure requirements to ensure adequate disclosure of pollution information. The legislative activities, disclosure requirements, and social, political and economic pressures were expected to encourage management to become socially responsible and pay greater attention to environmental and social consequences of corporate activities. (For a debate on corporate social responsibilities, see Sethi, 1975). Pollution abatement activities may involve substantial amounts of capital expenditures which could have an impact on the economic performance of firms. As a result of this economic impact, there may be a stock market reaction which would influence management decisions relating to pollution abatement activities. If the economic impact of these activities is negative and this is followed by a negative market reaction, management may be encouraged to postpone or reduce pollution related activities. Previous research studies on the association between pollution and economic performance have provided conflicting results. Bragdon and Marlin (1972) and Spicer (1978) have found that there was a positive association between the economic and pollution variables at the firm level. Christainsen and Haveman's (1981) analysis of economic studies, however, indicates that pollution regulations which resulted in heavy expenditures for pollution abatement activities have been one of the contributing factors to the slowdown in productivity growth. Although their study did not examine directly the impact of pollution performance on economic performance at the firm level, the results of their analysis clearly demonstrated that a positive association between pollution abatement and economic performance of firms was not a realistic expectation.
The paper develops and analyzes a model of a firm's market value as it relates to contemporaneous and future earnings, book values, and dividends. Two owners' equity accounting constructs provide the underpinnings of the model: the clean surplus relation applies, and dividends reduce current book value but do not affect current earnings. The model satisfies many appealing properties, and it provides a useful benchmark when one conceptualizes how market value relates to accounting data and other information.
Résumé. L'auteur élabore et analyse un modèle dans lequel il conceptualise la relation entre la valeur marchande d'une entreprise et ses bénéfices, ses valeurs comptables et ses dividendes actuels et futurs. Deux postulats de la comptabilisation des capitaux propres servent de charpente au modèle: a) la relation du résultat global s'applique et b) les dividendes réduisent la valeur comptable actuelle sans influer, cependant, sur les bénéfices actuels. Le modèle présente de nombreuses propriétés intéressantes et il peut, fort utilement, servir de repère dans la conceptualisation de la relation entre la valeur marchande et les données comptables et autres renseignements.
The paper develops a simple and parsimonious model that relates earnings and unexpected earnings to market returns. The analysis emphasizes that any model under uncertainty must be consistent with the theory of value, earnings, and dividends under certainty (i.e., Hicksian income theory). An extension of this theory exists such that the model subsumes uncertainty. The Hicksian approach is useful because it embeds key dividend irrelevancy concepts due to Modigliani and Miller (1961), and these can be retained under uncertainty. An interesting empirical proposition can be inferred from the model: earnings, rather than the change in earnings, ought to serve as a premier exploratory variable of returns. This contention is consistent with some recent empirical findings due to Easton and Harris (1991).
Résumé. L'auteur élabore un modèle simple et parcimonieux qui relie les bénéfices, et les bénéfices imprévus, aux rendements du marché. L'analyse met en relief le fait que tout modèle en situation d'incertitude doit être conforme á la théorie de la valeur, des bénéfices et des dividendes en situation de certitude (c'est-á-dire la théorie hicksienne des bénéfices). Cette théorie peut être élargie de telle sorte que le modèle tienne compte de l'incertitude. L'utilité de l'approche hicksienne tient au fait qu'elle englobe les concepts clés de non-pertinence relatifs au dividende que l'on attribue á Modigliani et Miller. et que ces concepts peuvent être appliqués en situation d'incertitude. Ce modèle permet de formuler une proposition empirique intéressante: les bénéfices, plutôt que l'évolution des bénéfices, doivent servir de première variable exploratoire des rendements. Cette affirmation est conforme aux résultats empiriques récemment obtenus pas Easton et Harris.
This paper investigates the relation between the market valuation of publicly-listed corporations and their social performance, as measured by their pollution record relative to environmental regulations. Expectations are that corporations with a good (bad) environmental record should be valued at a premium (discount) by the stock market. Such a relation results from the emergence of “ethical” (or Green) investing and from an increased awareness by investors of the potential negative consequences from corporate environmental damages.Two significant innovations are introduced in this study. First, using governmental data, a pollution index is computed for each sample firm. Second, the relevance of social information for investors' purposes is directly assessed by looking at the relation between the pollution index and a firm's market valuation, within the accounting identity framework (Modigliani and Miller, 1958).Results suggest that a firm's pollution performance is interpreted by market participants as providing information about its environmental liabilities. Furthermore, results weakly support the existence of a premium (discount) in the stock market valuation of firms that meet (do not meet) environmental regulations, thus lending some credence to the existence of a demand by some stock market participants for “ethical” (or Green) investments. This suggests that the disclosure of audited social information of a non-financial nature in a firm's annual report could be beneficial to market participants.
This paper examines the effect of accounting procedure changes on cash salary and bonus compensation to CEOs. We estimate whether there is an adjustment to the statistical relation between compensation and corporate earnings following changes that lower earnings (FIFO to LIFO inventory valuation) and that raise earnings (accelerated to straight-line depreciation). The results indicate that (1) subsequent to these changes salary and bonus payments are based on reported earnings, rather than earnings under the original accounting method, and (2) the potential compensation effect of the changes is small compared to the effect of economy- or industry-wide changes in compensation.
According to the legitimacy theory arguments of Preston & Post (Private Management and Public Policy, Prentice-Hall, 1975), social disclosures can be viewed as a method of responding to the changing perceptions of a corporation's relevant publics. Based on this theory, this paper examines the effect of the Exxon Valdez oil spill on the annual report environmental disclosures of petroleum firms other than Exxon. A significant increase in such disclosures is found. Furthermore, the amount of change is shown to be related to firm size and ownership in the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company. The results therefore support the legitimacy theory arguments.
This paper provides the results of a descriptive study of the socially responsible mutual funds currently existing in the U.S.A. Managers of these funds employ very similar procedures for evaluating firms with social criteria, although there was no one social criterion used unanimously. Sources of social information used varied widely from fund to fund with data provided by firms being the most frequently used. Managers believe a higher priority should be given to requiring public disclosure of data already being produced for limited distribution, e.g. EEO data.
Union Carbide's chemical leak in Bhopal, India during December 1984 resulted in approximately 4,000 deaths and 200,000 injuries. This study examines the market reaction of chemical firms other than Union Carbide to this catastrophe. Evidence indicates that a significant negative intra-industry reaction occurred. However, firms with more extensive environmental disclosures in their financial report prior to the chemical leak experienced a less negative reaction than firms with less extensive disclosures. This result suggests that investors interpreted such disclosures as a positive sign of the firm managing its exposure to future regulatory costs.
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/35399/2/b1408811.0001.001.pdf http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/35399/1/b1408811.0001.001.txt
This paper examines whether market participants implicitly assign different coefficients to pension cost components when determining security prices. The major findings are: (1) The pension cost components' coefficients generally differ from one another. As predicted, the transition asset amortization coefficient is lower than other pension coefficients, and is insignificantly different from zero. (2) Consistent with the market viewing pension-related income streams as less risky, the pension coefficients are generally larger than the nonpension coefficients. Additional specification tests permitting nonpension coefficients to vary with risk, tax-payer status, and industry membership, generally support the basic findings, although the significance levels are generally higher.
This paper describes the results of our survey of 250 mutual fund presidents. The survey sought to determine: (1) whether the funds' investment policies considered corporate activities in nine selected areas of social concern and (2) the respondents' perceptions of the relative importance and availability of information related to the nine areas. Our results, based on 102 usable responses, indicates that a majority of the funds had investment policies which considered some, but not all of the nine social activities. However, the relative importance of information on eight of the nine social activities was less than that for six selected financial items of information included in our mailed questionnaire. In general, the availability of information on the nine social areas was perceived to be low.
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