Department of Banking and Financial Management University of Piraeus
Academic Seminar Series
Thursday, March 27th, 2025 / Time: 16:15 – 17:30, Online

Carbon Burden

Lucian A. Taylor
University of Pennsylvania – The Wharton School

Abstract

We quantify the U.S. corporate sector’s carbon externality by computing the sector’s “carbon burden”—the present value of social costs of its future carbon emissions. Our baseline estimate of the carbon burden is 131% of total corporate equity value. Among individual firms, 77% have carbon burdens exceeding their market capitalizations, as do 13% of firms even with indirect emissions omitted. The 30 largest emitters account for all the decarbonization of U.S. corporations predicted by 2050. Predicted emission reductions, and even firms’ targets, fall short of the Paris Agreement. Firms’ emissions are predictable by past emissions, investment, climate score, and book-to-market.

Lucian Taylor is a Professor of Finance at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his AB from Princeton University and MBA and PhD in Finance from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. Professor Taylor’s primary areas of research are empirical Corporate Finance and Asset Management. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies, as well as nonacademic outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, and Forbes. His research has received the Fama-DFA Prize for best paper in the Journal of Financial Economics, Rothschild Caesarea Center Best Paper Award, Marshall Blume Prize, Jacobs Levy Prize, and the NASDAQ Award. Professor Taylor is an associate editor at the Journal of Financial Economics and Review of Finance. Since joining Wharton, Professor Taylor has taught Venture Capital and the Finance of Innovation (FNCE 250/750) to undergraduate, MBA, and executive MBA students.

This seminar will be online on Teams. Click here to attend