Adrian Lam


y.h.a.lam@pitt.edu

Clinical Assistant Professor of Finance

Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and College of Business Administration

University of Pittsburgh


Research Associate

Amsterdam Center for Law & Economics

University of Amsterdam


Address: 315 Mervis Hall, 3950 Roberto & Vera Clemente Drive, Pittsburgh PA 15260, USA

About Me

I joined the University of Pittsburgh as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Finance in the academic year 2023-2024, and am a Research Associate at the University of Amsterdam's Amsterdam Center for Law & Economics. 

I was previously Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands in the academic year 2022-2023. I obtained my PhD in Finance from Imperial College London, under the co-supervision of Cláudia Custódio and Marcin Kacperczyk. 

Curriculum Vitae

Working Papers

Abstract: We explore how carbon pricing affects corporate financial performance. Our setting exploits time series changes in European carbon allowance prices and cross-sectional heterogeneity in carbon emissions during Phase 3 of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). We find that the relationship between carbon prices and stock prices depends critically on the proportion of verified emissions covered by emission permits: For firms with a significant shortfall in emissions allowances, an increase in daily carbon prices is associated with a decrease in contemporaneous stock prices. For firms with a greater permit coverage, an increase in daily carbon prices is associated with higher contemporaneous stock prices. We provide additional evidence that firms with a significant permit shortfall reduce regulated but not global emissions.

Presentations:  SFS Cavalcade (Austin, 2023); European Winter Finance Summit (Zürs, 2023); Southwestern Finance Association Conference (Houston, 2023); Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Berlin, 2023); Joint Research Conference on Firm Financing, Organization and Dynamics (Paris, 2022); Junior European Finance Conference Early Ideas Session (Amsterdam, 2022); LSE Environment Week* (London, 2022) (*: Presented by co-authors)

Awards: Federation of Business Disciplines Distinguished Paper Award (2023); SWFA Conference Best Paper in Finance - General (2023)

Media: Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance

Abstract: This paper examines whether health risks deter corporate chemical pollution. I exploit the variation in perceived health risks created by the US Report on Carcinogens, which officially recognizes cancer risks posed by industrial chemicals. I show that when a chemical is recognized as a carcinogen, aggregate pollution levels remain unaffected, but pollution-based market concentration increases. While individual firms lower pollution levels and pollution capacity, the largest polluters acquire assets and scale up polluting activities. Additional analyses suggest that these corporate responses represent a reallocation of litigation risk across firms, which benefit shareholders but fail to deter chemical pollution.

Presentations: EFA Annual Meeting (Barcelona, 2022); WFA Annual Meeting (Portland, 2022); NERD Conference (Newcastle/Virtual, 2021); Nova PhD Pitch Perfect (Virtual, 2021); Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment 3rd Annual Conference (New York/Virtual; 2020); Imperial College Student Seminar Series (London; 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021)

Awards: WFA The Brattle Group Ph.D. Candidate Award for Outstanding Research (2022)

Abstract: We estimate the economic impact of climate change by exploiting variation in local temperature across suppliers of the same client. We find that suppliers experiencing a 1°C increase in average daily temperature decrease their sales by 2%. The effect is more pronounced among suppliers in manufacturing and heat-sensitive industries, which is consistent with lower labor productivity and supply when temperatures are higher. Financially constrained suppliers are more affected due to their lack of financial flexibility to adapt to changes in temperatures. We also find that episodes of extremely hot and cold weather lead to large drops in sales.

Presentations: EFA Annual Meeting* (Barcelona, 2022); NTHU Symposium on Sustainable Finance (Hsinchu City/Virtual, 2022); 1st Conference on Sustainable Finance (Luxembourg, 2022); Luso-Brazilian Finance Meeting* (Praia do Forte, Bahia, 2022); OFR Climate Implications for Financial Stability Conference* (Virtual, 2022); 20th International Conference on Credit Risk Evaluation (Venice/Virtual, 2021); EFiC 2021 Conference in Banking and Corporate Finance (Essex/Virtual, 2021); SGF Conference* (Zurich/Virtual, 2021); SHoF-ECGI Conference on Sustainable Finance and Corporate Governance (Stockholm/Virtual, 2020); Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment 3rd Annual Conference* (New York/Virtual, 2020); UZH Young Researcher Workshop on Climate Finance (Zurich, 2020) (*: Presented by co-authors)

Awards: EFiC Conference in Banking and Corporate Finance Best Paper Award (2021)

Media: Financial Times (2022), The European (2022)  

Abstract: We document that the stock prices of firms with higher carbon emissions respond more to monetary policy shocks around Federal Open Market Committee announcements. Theoretically, we show that greater emissions-reduction needs can explain high-emission firms’ heightened sensitivity to monetary policy. Consistent with this channel, we find that (i) the valuation results are stronger among capital-intensive and highly levered firms and (ii) high-emission firms reduce emissions relatively faster on average, but disproportionately slow down these efforts when monetary policy is restrictive. We also examine  bond price responses to monetary policy shocks to assess the relevance of differential discount rate effects. 

Presentations:  CEPR Paris Symposium* (Paris, 2024); SGFIN Annual Research Conference on Sustainability* (Singapore, 2024); SGF Conference* (Zürich, 2024); Imperial College London* (London, 2024); Hong Kong Baptist University (Hong Kong, 2023); De Nederlandsche Bank* (Amsterdam, 2024); Erasmus University Rotterdam* (Rotterdam, 2023), Goethe University Frankfurt* (Frankfurt, 2023); EFI Workshop* (Brussels, 2023) (*: Presented by co-authors)

Media: The FinReg Blog (2023)

Teaching