Stock market reaction to the announcement of Morocco’s voluntary carbon market: An event study

Abstract

Type of the article: Research ArticleAbstractThe growing development of voluntary carbon markets has raised increasing interest in understanding how financial markets respond to climate-related policy announcements, particularly in emerging economies. This study investigates the stock market reaction to the official announcement of the operational launch of Morocco’s voluntary carbon market on September 24, 2024. The analysis applies the event study methodology to a sample of the eight largest companies listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange to estimate expected returns and abnormal returns over an event window of [–4; +5].The results indicate that the announcement did not generate statistically significant abnormal stock market reactions. On the event day (t = 0), the average abnormal return (AAR) was –0.238% (t = –1.006; p = 0.348), while the cumulative abnormal return (CAR) over the [–4; +5] event window reached 1.00% (t = 0.615; p = 0.550), indicating the absence of a statistically significant market response. A robustness analysis using an alternative event window [–3; +3] produced similar results (CAR = 1.52%, t = 1.494; p = 0.186), confirming the stability of our finding.Overall, the evidence suggests that the operational launch of Morocco’s voluntary carbon market did not constitute value-relevant information capable of significantly influencing investors’ expectations or short-term market valuation, reflecting the early stage of development of the country’s voluntary carbon market.