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Biodiversity Media Narratives and Stock Market Performance: Evidence from Europe

Andres Azqueta-Gavaldon, Ben Jabeur Sami, Leila Hedhili

arXiv 18 Jun 2026 · Econometrics

arXiv:2606.19972 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

This study constructs novel biodiversity related media risk indicators for France, Germany, Italy, and Spain over 2015-2025, capturing media attention to biodiversity threats using the GDELT Global Knowledge Graph. Using panel Granger causality tests and an augmented inverse probability weighting (AIPW) event-study design, we find highly significant evidence that biodiversity risk reduces stock prices, with effects peaking between 3 and 10 months after a shock. Moreover, we uncover a marked asymmetry whereby the positive effects of low biodiversity risk episodes outweigh the negative effects of high-risk episodes. Results are robust across quantiles of the return distribution and hold when controlling for European equity market volatility and economic policy uncertainty. Our findings provide the first evidence that biodiversity media narratives drive stock market valuations in Europe.

Citation extraction

21
references
30
in-text mentions
21
distinct cited
0
self-citations
2,300
main-text words

appendix boundary found by appendix_titled_section at “Appendix” · 79% of the source is main text. Read the extracted text to check this.

Most heavily cited references

The works this paper leans on most, across its whole bibliography — not restricted to papers in our corpus. Ranked by composite intensity, which combines how often a work is mentioned, how many sections mention it, and how much of that falls in the main text rather than the appendix.

ReferenceIntensityMentionsSectionsMain text
1Sautner, Zacharias and van Lent, Laurence and Vilkov, Grigory and Zh… (2023) Firm-level climate change exposure0.7373367%
2Giglio, Stefano and Kuchler, Theresa and Stroebel, Johannes and Zeng… (2025) Biodiversity risk0.73732100%
3Ma, Feng and Wu, Hanlin and Zeng, Qing (2024) Biodiversity and stock returns0.64422100%
4Mikolov, Tomas and Sutskever, Ilya and Chen, Kai and Corrado, Greg S… (2013) Distributed representations of words and phrases and their compositionality0.5112250%
5Dumitrescu, Elena-Ivona and Hurlin, Christophe (2012) Testing for Granger non-causality in heterogeneous panels0.51121100%
6Robins, James M. and Rotnitzky, Andrea and Zhao, Lue Ping (1994) Estimation of Regression Coefficients When Some Regressors Are Not Always Observed0.51121100%
7Wooldridge, Jeffrey M (2010) Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data0.51121100%
8Ardia, David and Bluteau, Keven and Boudt, Kris and Inghelbrecht, Koen (2023) Climate change concerns and the performance of green vs. brown stocks0.40511100%
9Arkhangelsky, Dmitry and Imbens, Guido W. and Lei, Lihua and Luo, Xi… (2024) Design-Robust Two-Way-Fixed-Effects Regression for Panel Data0.40511100%
10Bolton, Patrick and Kacperczyk, Marcin (2021) Do investors care about carbon risk?0.40511100%

Showing the top 10 of 21 scored citations.