Does the EU ETS Bite? The Impact of Allowance Over-Allocation on Share Prices

Abstract

The Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS), created in 1992 and directed by Stefano Bartolini since September 2006, aims to develop inter-disciplinary and comparative research and to promote work on the major issues facing the process of integration and European society.The Centre is home to a large post-doctoral programme and hosts major research programmes and projects, and a range of working groups and ad hoc initiatives. The research agenda is organised around a set of core themes and is continuously evolving, reflecting the changing agenda of European integration and the expanding membership of the European Union. Climate Policy Research UnitThe Climate Policy Research Unit (CPRU) is a research group within the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies under the Loyola de Palacio Chair. The goal of the CPRU is to provide a reliable source for information and analysis of EU climate policy and a forum for discussion of research carried out in this area among government officials, academics and industry.The CPRU was established in 2010 at the initiative of Josep Borrell, President of the EUI and former President of the European Parliament, as a means of providing more focus to European climate policy developments. The director of the CPRU is Denny Ellerman, part-time professor at the RSCAS, and recently retired as a Senior Lecturer from MIT's Sloan School of Management. The CPRU works in collaboration with the energy and regulatory policy research groups of the Florence School of Regulation and Loyola de Palacio Chair and with the Global Governance Programme at the EUI. Starting in 2012, the CPRU has been funded primarily by the European Commission (DG Clima).The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not represent the views of the European University Institute or any of its subsidiary components or those of the European Commission. For more information:http://fsr.eui.eu/CPRU/Index.aspx AbstractThe aim of this paper is to examine whether shareholders consider the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) as value-relevant for the participating firms. An analysis is conducted of the share prices changes as caused by the first publication of compliance data in April, 2006, which disclosed an overallocation of emission allowances. Through an event study, it is shown that share prices actually increased as a result of the allowance price drop when firms have a lower carbon-intensity of production and larger allowance holdings. There was no significant value impact from firms' allowance trade activity or from the pass-through of carbon-related production costs (carbon leakage). The conclusion is that the EU ETS does 'bite'. The main impact on the share prices of firms arises from their carbon-intensity of production. The EU ETS is thus valued as a restriction on pollution.