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本期主题
Demystifying Cheap Sustainability Talks: Theory and Evidence
时 间：2026年7月3日（Fri.）
10:00 - 11:30 a.m.
地 点：同德楼111
主 讲：Tianhao Yao (SMU)
讲座摘要
We study whether costless, non-verifiable sustainability claims can be credible and affect pricing of stocks. We develop a cheap-talk model in which a share-price-maximizing firm privately observes future cash flow and a sustainability attribute, both of which are reflected in stock price. Non-babbling equilibria arise in which sustainability claims are positively related to sustainability but negatively related to future cash flows, even when the two fundamentals are ex-ante independent. The adverse cash-flow inference acts as an endogenous cost and disciplines sustainability talk, thus lending credibility. Empirically, using U.S. earnings-call transcripts, we find that sustainability talks are associated with negative earnings forecast revisions while also lower firms' implied cost of capital. The two effects offset each other, leading to null effect on stock return, consistent with model prediction. Our results shed new light on firms' communication of sustainability information in the absence of regulatory interventions and their implications on asset prices.
主讲简介
Dr. Tianhao Yao is an Assistant Professor of Finance at Singapore Management University. His research focuses on sustainable finance, ESG investing, and asset management. He received his PhD from HEC Paris. His research has been published in leading finance journals, including the Journal of Finance.
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