Enhancing environmental quality is currently a key focus for policymakers. Furthermore, researchers are also prioritizing the investigation of novel variables that can influence environmental quality. The yield spread is commonly used as a leading indicator for business cycles in the macro‐finance literature, providing information about future expectations regarding business cycles. The yield spread also presents information about the borrowing costs of firms. None of the existing studies in the environmental economics literature has tested the impact of the yield spread on environmental quality, implying the level of the yield spread has not been considered a variable that can influence environmental quality. This study aims to fill this gap by providing evidence on the effect of yield spread (between 2‐ and 10‐year government bonds) on environmental quality in the United States from June 1976 to September 2023. The results indicate that an increase in the yield spread leads to a rise in environmental destruction. These results suggest two considerable consequences. First, optimistic expectations today lead to the overuse of resources and environmental destruction. Second, firms' higher borrowing costs may be forcing them to use less environmentally friendly production methods to offset more expensive financing costs and increase their profits. This study asserts that companies should enhance their environmental sensitivity, and policymakers should adopt a more proactive stance, based on the results of this study and other research that demonstrates the detrimental impacts of environmental regulation violations and poor environmental performances on companies' stock prices and financial performances.

中文翻译：

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金融与环境关系的新视角：收益率差差如何影响美国的环境质量


提高环境质量是目前政策制定者的重点。此外，研究人员还优先考虑研究可能影响环境质量的新变量。收益率差差在宏金融文献中通常用作商业周期的领先指标，提供有关商业周期未来预期的信息。收益率差价还提供了有关公司借款成本的信息。环境经济学文献中现有的研究都没有测试过产量差差对环境质量的影响，这意味着产量差差的水平不被认为是可以影响环境质量的变量。本研究旨在通过提供 1976 年 6 月至 2023 年 9 月收益率利差（2 年期和 10 年期政府债券之间）对美国环境质量影响的证据来填补这一空白。结果表明，产量差别的增加会导致环境破坏的增加。这些结果表明了两个相当大的后果。首先，今天的乐观预期导致了资源的过度使用和环境破坏。其次，企业较高的借贷成本可能迫使它们使用不太环保的生产方法来抵消更昂贵的融资成本并增加利润。本研究断言，公司应该提高其环境敏感性，政策制定者应该采取更积极主动的立场，基于这项研究和其他研究的结果，这些研究证明了违反环境法规和不良环境绩效对公司股票价格和财务业绩的不利影响。