GHG Emissions of Italian Unlisted Firms and Bank Debt

In this paper I investigate the effect of the greenhouse gas emissions of a sample of 478 Italian unlisted firms on their bank debt, in the context of the growing attention and awareness for climate change issue. My findings show that unlisted firms generating low levels of greenhouse gas emissions borrow less long-term, short term, and total bank debt than unlisted firms generating high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, to finance their growth opportunities. Being the first work analyzing this topic, to the best of my knowledge, further empirical research could also investigate the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on the bank financing of unlisted firms of different countries, representing specific cultural and political approaches towards climate change problems.