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The authors examine one special focus of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs), namely environmental, social and governance (ESG) related investments. The authors document the performance of SPACs with and without ESG focus.

The authors collect data, from several sources, on 1,737 SPAC IPOs formed between 2003 and 2022. A SPAC's focus on ESG is classified based on declared focus in Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings and in post-merger annual reports. The authors examine operational and financial performance of SPACs with and without ESG focus.

In the study's sample, only 50% of SPACs that announced an intention to acquire an ESG target ended up consummating a merger with an ESG private firm. ESG SPACs exhibit worse operating performance than non-ESG SPACs. Furthermore, they experience 11.6% lower 1-year post-merger excess returns than their non-ESG counterparts.

The study provides an examination of ESG firms that came to market via mergers with SPACs, which is an alternative method to traditional initial public offerings (IPOs). The study also provides a comparison of both operational and stock performance of ESG and non-ESG SPACs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of systemic risk and competition in over‐the‐counter (OTC) derivatives dealing. Using derivatives‐related failures during the 1990s, the authors draw conclusions that are pertinent to the recent financial market turmoil involving OTC derivatives.

The authors use the event‐study methodology with crude dependence adjustment to examine the wealth effect for the involved derivatives dealers. The authors re‐estimate the parameters using the market‐adjusted model to check for robustness. In addition, a multivariable regression framework was used to estimate the determinants of the abnormal returns.

OTC derivatives dealers experience negative returns when their clients announce derivatives losses. In contrast, rival dealers uninvolved in the loss event exhibit positive returns. The extent of the positive returns for the rival dealers grows as new events unfold, and the dealers continue to steer clear of derivatives trouble. A broader industry portfolio of securities brokers, dealers, and advisors is affected negatively, indicating possible industry contagion. The cross‐sectional analysis of the abnormal returns indicates the presence of information (and not pure) contagion implying that in a financial crisis involving derivatives systemic failure is not likely.

The authors extend the literature by examining an exhaustive set of derivatives loss events. The sample includes a more diverse set of derivatives dealers and it spans a longer time period than prior studies did. This is also the first study confirming the distorting impact of the “too big to fail” and “federal safety net” phenomena in the context of OTC derivatives dealing.