Is there a Greenium in the Corporate Green Bond Market?

This paper examines the pricing of green bonds vis-à-vis standard corporate bonds. Using a cross-section of green bonds issued by corporates in the 2014–2021 period, we build a matched sample of quasi-identical conventional bonds and find a statistically insignificant green bond premium of -7.2 bps. These results remain identical when creating subsamples according to the currency of denomination (euro versus USD) and issuer types (financial versus nonfinancial firms), and when controlling for contractual, macroeconomic, and several fixed effects. Our findings imply that there is no pricing difference between bonds that mainly differ with respect to their green label, and investors are not willing to exchange financial returns for non-pecuniary environmental benefits.