Amir Amel-Zadeh
University of Oxford
Do Green Bonds Trade Differently? Evidence from European Electronic Markets
Monday, October 26, 2026 – 02:00 – 03:15 PM (CET)
This session will be held as a hybrid event. To join in person, you can come to room EO 145. The Zoom link for the event can be found here.
Seminar Abstract
Green bonds have become key instruments in climate finance, yet their secondary market trading behaviour remains largely unexplored. Using intraday RFQ data from Europe’s largest corporate bond trading platform from 2017–2022, we document that green bonds trade faster, in larger sizes, and at tighter spreads than conventional bonds of the same issuer, but their buy‑side RFQs experience higher trading frictions, consistent with strong, relatively inelastic demand meeting limited free float. During the COVID‑19 dislocation, green bonds experience smaller increases in price volatility and spreads. Conventional bonds of green issuers also exhibit improved trading conditions, consistent with firm-level information spillovers from green issuance. Green bonds react more sharply to severe environmental controversies but show no differential response to credit rating changes, consistent with a clientele that values environmental integrity alongside standard credit fundamentals.
Link to the paper: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=7442015
Speaker Bio
Dr. Amel-Zadeh's research examines the effects of companies’ financial and non-financial information disclosures on capital markets and the mediating role of accounting standards and information intermediaries.
Amir maintains a close involvement with the business and financial services community.
He has taught or consulted for the asset management and banking industry globally on investment, reporting and banking topics and has been a speaker on various industry conferences. He was on the board of directors of Australian FinTech Archa and on the academic advisory council at PanAgora Asset Management.
He has also been engaged with public policy organisations such as the UN Conference for Trade and Development on issues related to corporate disclosures and transparency. He is currently a board member of the UK Endorsement Board, the UK National Standard Setter for international accounting standards.
Prior to his career in academia, Amir worked for the fixed income structured solutions group at Lehman Brothers in London. He has held non-executive board positions at start-up companies in the bio and fintech sectors.
Admission information
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