Discussion paper

DP18619 Climate change and bank deposits

Abnormally warm temperatures are associated with an increase in people’s beliefs about climate change. Using branch-level deposit data from the United States, we find that depositors move their money away from fossil-fuel-financing banks when experiencing warmer-than-usual temperatures. This effect is more pronounced in counties with more climate change deniers, measured by the percentage of Republican voters in each county. Our results shed light on people’s responses to the impacts of global warming by studying the relationship between households’ beliefs about climate change and their non-financial preferences in their choice of bank for deposits.

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Citation

Dursun-de Neef, H and S Ongena (2023), ‘DP18619 Climate change and bank deposits‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 18619. CEPR Press, Paris & London. https://cepr.org/publications/dp18619