Between 2010 and 2020, the U.S. coal industry experienced a 50% drop in production, employment, and active mines, driven by regulatory factors and technological innovation in alternative energy sources. We study the impact of this energy transition on household employment, wages, migration, and home ownership in affected communities. Compared to non-coal-producing, resource-rich counties, coal-producing counties experience 6% and 4% drops in employment and wages, respectively, during this period. Economic mobility and access to banking services significantly moderate these real effects, suggesting a potential role for finance to shape the industrial and economic changes associated with climate transitions. (JEL G20, G50, J61, Q55, Q58) Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online.

The U.S. banking sector had nearly 70% fewer banks in 2022 relative to 1989, primarily because of mergers. We develop a methodology to estimate cross-market spillover effects of bank mergers and test whether the operations of incumbents facing consolidating competitors in one market are affected in other markets. We find that nonmerging banks within a market that are one standard deviation more exposed to mergers in other markets increase deposits by 2.1% relative to their less exposed competitors. Our methodology may be applied elsewhere to assess the aggregate impacts of industry consolidation and illustrates challenges with product-based or geographic market definitions.

Financial market information can provide an objective assessment of losses anticipated from temperature changes. In an APT model in which temperature shocks are a systematic risk factor, the risk premium is significantly negative, loadings for most assets are negative, and asset portfolios in more vulnerable industries have stronger negative loadings on a temperature shock factor. Weighted average increases in the cost of equity capital attributed to uncertainty about temperature changes are 0.22 percent, implying a present value loss of 7.92 percent of wealth. These costs represent a new channel that may contribute to cost of climate change assessment.

ABSTRACT This study examines whether and how voluntary news disclosure made by private firms affects investment sensitivities of public peer firms. Analyzing data from U.S. public firms from 1996 to 2018, we discover that public firms’ investment sensitivities intensify in industries with active private firm disclosures; a one standard deviation increase in private firm news disclosure raises public firms’ investment sensitivities by 14.5–17.6 percent. To mitigate endogeneity, we employ instrumental-variable methods, leveraging the staggered implementation of prudent investor rules and enforceability of noncompete agreements. Our results show that these effects are magnified in industries marked by the higher expected industry return volatility and less local newspaper coverage. We find that news from private firms significantly enhances public firms’ investment sensitivities, regardless of its sentiment. This research highlights the crucial role of private firm disclosures in influencing public firms’ investment decisions, enhancing our understanding of information spillovers in corporate disclosure. JEL Classifications: D80; G31; G32; M41.