Determining the Performance of Renewable Energy Stocks: A Cross-Country Analysis

We examine in this study the relationship between alternative-energy stock excess returns and a wide variety of firm- and country-level risk factors. We collect data for 186 companies, belonging to 5 major renewable energy indexes, from 29 countries over the period 2000-2015. We follow the methodology used by Boyer & Filion (2007) and employ a generalized least squared (GLS) panel model. The results suggest that market excess returns, the changes in company size, and a company’s market-to-book value all have a significant, positive influence on alternative-energy stock value in all our specifications. The findings also imply that, in our sample, the alternative energy sector is riskier than the stock market as a whole. Oil price changes appear to have a weaker, but still a positive impact on clean-energy stock returns in specific time periods, whereas, surprisingly, natural gas prices do not appear to influence those returns. The changes in the percentage of electricity generated using renewable energies, GDP per capita, the input of manufacturing into a country’s GDP, and pollution levels all appear to have a positive impact on renewable-energy stock prices. Finally, we find that the influence of interest rate changes varies (i) between developed and developing countries, and (ii) over the sample period which is largely due to the influence of the financial crisis