You are cordially invited to attend the next CEGE4ALL: Markets & Policy Work-in-Progress Seminar by João Pinto, on “Sustainable versus conventional bonds: A comparative analysis of primary market spreads”.
Venue: Católica Porto Business School, Paradise Building, Room EP002
Date: 15 May
Time: 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Format: hybrid (online or in-person)
REGISTRATION HERE
Registration is required. Please register via the link below by 14 May indicating if you will be attending in person or online.
This paper offers a comparative analysis of the credit spreads and pricing of sustainable and conventional corporate bonds. Using a cross-section of 30,368 bonds issued by 8,267 nonfinancial firms globally between 2012 and 2022, we find that sustainable and conventional bonds react differently to common pricing factors. Notably, investors rely less on credit ratings when pricing sustainable bonds compared to conventional bonds. We also find no significant difference in the spreads of sustainable bond tranches relative to similar conventional bonds. This result holds across green, social, and sustainability bonds, as well as in a matched sample of conventional bonds. Furthermore, our findings are consistent across both pre-COVID and COVID periods, indicating that issuing firms do not use sustainable bonds as a strategy to lower borrowing costs.
João Pinto holds a PhD in Business and Management Studies, specialising in Finance, from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Porto, and a Certificate of Management Excellence from Harvard Business School. As a visiting scholar at the Michael F. Price College of Business, University of Oklahoma, João conducted research in financial innovation and structured finance.
Since March 2017, João has been a member of the Executive Committee at Catholic University of Portugal – Porto, and in December 2023, he was appointed Dean of Católica Porto Business School, where he has been a Professor of Finance since 2008. As co-leader of INSURE.Hub (Innovation in Sustainability and Regeneration Hub), João has been promoting interdisciplinary innovation in sustainability and regeneration since 2020.
In addition to his academic role, João has been a consultant in due diligence, corporate restructuring, and project valuation for the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development since 2014. He has also co-authored numerous refereed articles published in prestigious academic journals such as the Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Financial Stability, Journal of Financial Services Research, European Financial Management, European Journal of Finance, Finance Research Letters, and Investment Management and Financial Innovations.
