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YorkSpace is York University's Institutional Repository. It supports York University's Senate Policy on Open Access by providing York community members with a place to preserve their research online in an institutional context.

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    Long-Term Corporate Bonds, Credit Ratings, and Carbon Emissions: A Canadian Analysis
    (2026) Malhotra, Gandharv; Weber, Olaf
    This study examines whether carbon emissions influence the cost of debt in the Canadian corporate bond market. Using a dataset of approximately 5,800 corporate bonds issued between 2000 and 2025, the analysis explores how issuer-level CO₂ emissions, credit ratings, bond maturity, and industry sector affect bond coupon rates, which serve as a proxy for borrowing costs. The study applies ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and ANOVA techniques to evaluate whether higher-emitting firms face higher financing costs or lower credit ratings. The results show that traditional financial risk factors, such as credit ratings and bond maturity, are the strongest determinants of coupon rates. Firms with lower credit quality and bonds with longer maturities consistently exhibit higher coupon rates. In contrast, issuer-level carbon emissions have only a marginal, statistically insignificant effect on borrowing costs once conventional financial variables are controlled for. However, sectoral differences play a significant role. Carbon-intensive industries such as Energy, Industrials, Materials, and Real Estate exhibit significantly higher coupon rates compared to other sectors. This suggests that investors may incorporate environmental risk indirectly through sector-level risk perceptions rather than through firm-specific emissions metrics. When the sector variable is removed from the regression model, the model's explanatory power drops substantially, indicating that industry classification captures a large share of the variation in bond pricing. These findings indicate that, during the sample period, carbon emissions are not yet systematically priced at the firm level in Canadian bond markets. Instead, environmental risk appears to be reflected primarily through traditional credit assessments and broad sector risk characteristics. This may indicate that climate-related financial risks remain partially mispriced or insufficiently differentiated across companies. The results have implications for both policymakers and investors. Policymakers may need to strengthen climate disclosure frameworks and develop standardized reporting requirements to enable investors to better evaluate firm-level environmental risks. For investors, the findings highlight the importance of integrating more granular climate metrics, such as emissions intensity, transition strategies, and exposure to carbon pricing, into credit risk analysis. As climate policies and disclosure standards evolve, financial markets may increasingly incorporate firm-level environmental performance into debt pricing. Overall, the study contributes to the growing literature on sustainable finance by providing evidence that the integration of climate risk into bond pricing remains incomplete, suggesting significant potential for future developments in climate-informed financial markets.
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    Green Talk, Costly Walk: The Financial Cost of Greenwashing
    (Wiley, 2026-02-08) Taddeo, Simone; Regoli, Andrea; Weber, Olaf; Carè, Rosella
    ABSTRACT This study investigates the financial consequences of greenwashing, operationalized as the misalignment between ESG disclosure and actual ESG performance. While prior research has explored the reputational and ethical dimensions of greenwashing, its impact on firms' cost of debt remains underexamined. Drawing on a panel of 411 S&P 500 companies over a 10‐year period (2014–2023), we construct two firm‐level indicators of greenwashing, grESG and gr2ESG, based on z‐scores and percentile ranks, respectively. These measures capture the credibility gap between what firms communicate and what they deliver in terms of sustainability. Using random effects within‐between (REWB) models, we decompose structural (between‐firm) and temporal (within‐firm) effects to assess how ESG inconsistency influences debt pricing. Our findings reveal that the between‐firm component of greenwashing is positively and significantly associated with the after‐tax cost of debt, suggesting that financial markets interpret ESG misalignment as a persistent reputational trait rather than a short‐term deviation. The results are robust across alternative specifications, including models that account for ESG‐related controversies. The study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that ESG credibility is a priced financial attribute and that symbolic sustainability efforts, defined as disclosure‐oriented or reputational gestures without substantive operational changes, may backfire in terms of financing costs.
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    Behavioural Aspects of Financial Advice
    (Springer, 2022-07-25) Richards, Daniel
    As financial products and financial markets become more complex, there is an increase in people seeking out financial advice to make important financial decisions. Financial planning is emerging as a profession that provides clients with comprehensive financial plans to achieve their financial goals. Yet the practice of providing financial advice is an under-researched topic and worthy of more interest. This chapter reviews behavioural research to provide insights into financial planning. It accomplishes this in two ways. Firstly, it reviews behavioural research on how people make financial decisions, showing that the concepts of the disposition effect, home bias, and mental accounting are relevant for financial planners who want to understand their clients’ behaviours. Secondly, the chapter reviews research on the advisor-to-advisee relationship covering the topics of conflicts of interest, disclosure, and persuasion, which inform the process of providing financial advice. Overall, behavioural research can offer unique insights into financial planning. This knowledge should be developed further and incorporated into the financial planning curriculum.
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    Trans Urban Activism as a Wave of Counter-Planning
    (2024-08-31) Armignonette, Carmen; Young, Douglas
    My research paper examines the evolution of counter-planning practices, with a focus on the recent emergence of transgender-centred urban activism. Drawing on an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, the paper argues that we are now witnessing a "fifth wave" of counterplanning, one that centres the experiences and rights of transgender individuals in the built environment. The paper traces the history of counter-planning, beginning with feminist disruptions of malenormative planning, followed by racial, LGBTQ+, and immigrant/migrant-focused waves. It then asserts that the current phase of counter-planning is distinguished by a prioritization of transgender identities, experiences, and claims to the city. Through an analysis of housing, public resources, and urban spaces, the paper explores how transgender activists are using planning mechanisms to challenge urban transphobia and advocate for transgender people's right to the city. Grounded in an interdisciplinary framework that draws on urban theory, feminist theory, critical race theory, and queer theory, this research contributes to emerging scholarship on the intersections of transgender identities, urban planning, and spatial justice. By elevating transgender counter-planning practices, the paper aims to inform more inclusive and equitable approaches to the production of urban space.
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    Biofilm Control Inside Secondary Water Storage Containers Using UV LIght
    (2026-03-10) Di Falco, Patrick Alexander; Gora, Stephanie
    This thesis investigates the feasibility of ultraviolet (UV) light treatment for biofilm control inside secondary storage containers used in humanitarian settings. A scoping literature review investigating real‑world UV light treatment application revealed that, even though it is effective beyond controlled laboratory settings, it is underexplored as a method for biofilm control in humanitarian contexts. To address this gap, a ray tracing model was developed to simulate UV irradiance distribution within a representative jerry can, and experimental validation showed model predictions were within 17% of measured values. Lab-grown biofilms were then treated at locations inside the jerry can receiving moderate and low levels of UV irradiance. At a maximum UV dose of 16 mJ/cm², the location receiving moderate UV irradiance achieved 2.47 ± 0.75 (average ± standard deviation) log-reduction value (LRV) while the location receiving low UV irradiance achieved 2.99 ± 0.07 LRV. Comparisons with other UV/biofilm research showed that similar germicidal thresholds could be achieved even with the lower parameters incorporated into this research. These findings demonstrate that UV light treatment is a technically viable method for biofilm control inside secondary storage containers used in humanitarian settings. Future research investigating this treatment method under real world conditions will prove to be the next key step in determining its feasibility for future implementation in humanitarian contexts.