Does Social Network Sentiment Influence S&P 500 Environmental & Socially Responsible Index?

Corporate social responsibility stimulus on environmental problems: Spatial threshold model analysis

A popular subject of general interest is the connection between corporate social responsibility, research and development, tax policy, and the purchase of green bonds. To encourage the coordinated growth of the economy and a pollution-free environment, it is crucial to understand how they interact. The paper develops a theoretical framework based on the general equilibrium theory's multi-sector model to examine how tax competition affects environmental degradation. The existence of such an effect, which is a threshold effect resulting from corporate social responsibility (CSR), and how it is impacted by CSR are theoretically established. The study used Moroccan province panel data from 2000 to 2022 and the spatial panel threshold model. The empirical finding demonstrates the importance of the threshold impact of CSR since reduced tax competition tends to worsen environmental degradation when CSR is above the threshold value and to reduce it when CSR is below the threshold value. The study also reveals that the impact of tax competitiveness varies regionally. Several policy suggestions are then put out to assist Morocco in reducing environmental pollution through taxation.

Twitter Sentiment Analysis and Influence on Stock Performance Using Transfer Entropy and EGARCH Methods

Financial economic research has extensively documented the fact that the impact of the arrival of negative news on stock prices is more intense than that of the arrival of positive news. The authors of the present study followed an innovative approach based on the utilization of two artificial intelligence algorithms to test that asymmetric response effect. Methods: The first algorithm was used to web-scrape the social network Twitter to download the top tweets of the 24 largest market-capitalized publicly traded companies in the world during the last decade. A second algorithm was then used to analyze the contents of the tweets, converting that information into social sentiment indexes and building a time series for each considered company. After comparing the social sentiment indexes’ movements with the daily closing stock price of individual companies using transfer entropy, our estimations confirmed that the intensity of the impact of negative and positive news on the daily stock prices is statistically different, as well as that the intensity with which negative news affects stock prices is greater than that of positive news. The results support the idea of the asymmetric effect that negative sentiment has a greater effect than positive sentiment, and these results were confirmed with the EGARCH model.

US biopharmaceutical companies' stock market reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding the concept of the 'paradoxical spiral' from a sustainability perspective

In an uncertain and finite world, actions towards the development of a green economy are attracting wider support. The damaging anthropogenic impact on earth systems is leading humanity to devastating situations, jeopardizing its very survival. A new world scenario has emerged with COVID-19, where the biopharmaceutical sector has arisen as a powerful effective solution for the health, economic and social crisis derived from the pandemic. This research aims to study the stock market reaction of the two US biopharmaceutical companies that first developed messenger RNA vaccines against COVID-19 (Pfizer and Moderna), considering two time periods, before and during COVID. In the analysis, the influence of the technological market index, market volatility, and investor sentiment are also considered. The results show an unequal influence of market volatility and market sentiment on the returns of both companies, as well as a different volatility behaviour. Furthermore, a contagion effect is observed during the COVID period between both companies and the technological market. The study's findings provide investors, organizations, policy-makers and society with useful information for the design of policies and strategies that ultimately are called to ensure sustainable growth for future generations.

Inclusions in and Exclusions from the S&P 500 Environmental and Socially Responsible Index: A Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Socially responsible investment (SRI) indices provide an interesting opportunity to analyse the links between corporate financial performance (CFP) and corporate sustainability performance (CSP). However, few studies focus on the antecedents of inclusions in and exclusions from SRI indices. Specifically, the implications of corporate sustainability disclosure (CSD) have been largely ignored in this field. Furthermore, previous literature on the CSP-CSD-CFP links shows inconclusive results that have been attributed to both methodological and measurement problems, which suggest the existence of asymmetry, equifinality and complexity amongst these links. This study targets two under-researched areas regarding the determinants of changes in the composition of SRI indices, and the effects of CSD on CSP. This study also attempts to overcome the methodological and measurement limitations of previous studies on the CFP-CSD-CSP links. The study presents a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore how different combinations of CFP and CSD indicators are related to inclusions in an SRI index (assumed as expressions of a good CSP), and exclusions from an SRI index (equivalent to a poor CSP). The empirical results reveal that a combination of different CSD indicators is necessary, but not sufficient, to lead to the inclusion in or exclusion from an SRI index, and that CFP measures have asymmetrical effects on CSP. CSD is a relevant antecedent or precondition of CSP that can motivate changes in corporate behaviours towards an improved CSP. Poor CSP, leading to an exclusion from the index, is associated with poor CSD and a deterioration of CFP. The implications for researchers, business managers, SRI rating agencies and policymakers are derived.