Table 4:

Climate change exposure and the costs of high leverage.

(1)(2)(3)(4)
CCEXPOt-2 × HLEVt-2-0.0132***
(-3.21)
-0.0131***
(- 3.20)
-0.0138***
(-3.18)
-0.0138***
(-3.18)
CCEXPOt-20.0082***
(3.21)
0.0082***
(3.21)
0.0085***
(3.18)
0.0086***
(3.19)
CSRt-2 × HLEVt-2 0.0077**(2.52) 0.0055*(1.81)
CSRt-2 -0.0099***( - 4.70) -0.0084***(-4.10)
HLEVt-2-0.0183***
(-3.81)
-0.0188***
(-3.88)
-0.0203***
(-4.18)
-0.0205***
(- 4.20)
SIZEt0.0371***
(7.30)
0.0374***
(7.40)
0.0533***
(8.58)
0.0536***
(8.64)
COMPETITIONt0.0868**
(1.97)
0.0867**
(1.97)
0.1292
(0.84)
0.1426
(0.94)
PROFITt-1-0.0907***
(-4.22)
-0.0908***
(-4.23)
-0.0852***
(-2.96)
-0.0857***
(- 2.96)
PROFITt-2-0.0306
(-1.45)
-0.0308
(-1.46)
-0.0543*
(-1.89)
-0.0551*
(-1.92)
INVESTMENTt-10.1429*
(1.84)
0.1394*
(1.80)
0.0739
(1.04)
0.0716
(1.01)
INVESTMENTt-2-0.0899
(-1.12)
-0.0895
(-1.12)
-0.0136
(-0.19)
-0.0137
(-0.19)
SELLEXPt-1-0.0018
(-0.13)
-0.0020
(-0.15)
0.0501
(1.33)
0.0501
(1.33)
SELLEXPt-20.0220*
(1.71)
0.0219*
(1.70)
0.0190
(0.63)
0.0190
(0.63)
COGSt-1-0.3550***
(-13.03)
-0.3566***
(-13.11)
-0.3415***
(-11.90)
-0.3427***
(-11.95)
COGSt-20.1607***
(6.37)
0.1581***
(6.28)
0.1753***
(6.52)
0.1732***
(6.45)
PENALTY t-1-0.0006*
(-1.77)
-0.0006*
(-1.81)
-0.0009**
(-2.56)
-0.0009***
(-2.61)
PENALTYt-2-0.0010***
(-2.93)
-0.0010***
(- 2.86)
-0.0011***
(-3.39)
-0.0011***
(-3.34)
CONSTANT-0.0512**
(-2.24)
-0.0552**
(-2.42)
0.0008(
0.01)
-0.0041
(-0.05)
N20,03820,03820,03820,038
R-squared5.12%5.26%18.53%18.62%
Firm F.E.YYYY
Firm F.E.YY  
Year × Industry F.E.  YY
Note: This table reports the results of the effect of climate exposure on high leverage costs using a firm fixed effects regression model. Models 1 and 2 employ the fixed effect regressions with firm and year fixed effects. Models 3 and 4 replace year fixed effects with year × industry fixed effects. The dependent variable is industry-adjusted sales growth (SALES_G). The main variable of interest is the interaction term between industry-adjusted climate change exposure (CCEXPO) and a dummy variable that equals 1 if, in that year, the firm's long-term debt-to-assets ratio ranks in the top three deciles of the overall sample (HLEV). Additional variable definitions are in the Appendix. All control variables are adjusted to their industry-year means and are winsorized at the 1st and 99th percentiles. Further, we require that each industry-year contains at least four firms to be qualified in the analysis so that the industry-year mean is not biased toward outliers. The sample period is 2004—2020. The t-statistics based on heteroskedasticity-robust standard errors and clustered at the firm level are reported in parentheses. Asterisks denote statistical significance at the 1% (***), 5% (**), or 10% (*) level.

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