{"type":"script","doc_desc":{"producers":[{"name":"Reproducibility WBG","abbr":"DECDI","affiliation":"World Bank - Development Impact Department","role":"Verification and preparation of metadata"}],"prod_date":"2026-02-26","version":"1"},"project_desc":{"authoring_entity":[{"name":"Alvaro Pedraza","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"apedrazamorales@worldbank.org"},{"name":"Tomas Williams","affiliation":"George Washington University","email":"tomaswilliams@email.gwu.edu"},{"name":"Federica Zeni","affiliation":"Politechnique Federale de Lausanne and Swiss Finance Institute","email":"federica.zeni@epfl.ch"}],"title_statement":{"title":"Reproducibility package for Local Visibility Vs. Global Integrity: Evidence From Corporate Carbon Offsetting","idno":"RR_WLD_2026_581"},"data_statement":"Some data is restricted and has not been included in the reproducibility package. For more details, please refer to the README file. ","software":[{"name":"Stata","version":"18 MP"}],"scripts":[{"title":"Reproducibility package for Local Visibility Vs. Global Integrity: Evidence From Corporate Carbon Offsetting","date":"2026-02","notes":"Computational reproducibility verified by Development Impact (DECDI) Analytics team, World Bank.","instructions":"See README in reproducibility package.","file_name":"RR_WLD_2026_581","zip_package":"RR_WLD_2026_581.zip","dependencies":"Stata dependencies are listed in the ado folder."}],"repository_uri":[{"name":"Reproducible Research Repository (World Bank)","uri":"https:\/\/reproducibility.worldbank.org"}],"production_date":"2026-02-26","abstract":"Although the climate impact of carbon abatement is geographically invariant, this paper documents limited geographic fungibility in voluntary carbon markets. Firms disproportionately retire offsets in countries where they operate. We contrast an Information Channel, whereby local presence improves project screening, with a Goodwill Channel, whereby supporting local projects enhances reputational visibility. The evidence supports the latter. Offsets retired within firms' operational footprints exhibit systematically lower project quality than those sourced abroad, revealing a negative local quality gradient. This pattern persists with firm experience and generates equilibrium price-quality decoupling: in jurisdictions with concentrated local demand, prices become less responsive to project quality. The resulting distortions can generate a \"market for lemons\" dynamic, reallocating climate finance away from high-abatement-potential regions toward areas with greater multinational presence. Strategic corporate incentives thus weaken the allocative efficiency of voluntary carbon markets.","geographic_units":[{"name":"World","code":"WLD"}],"keywords":[{"name":"Voluntary Carbon Markets"},{"name":"Operational Footprint"},{"name":"Social Capital"},{"name":"Carbon Offset Quality"}],"topics":[{"id":"F18","uri":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","vocabulary":"Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)","name":"Trade and Environment","parent_id":"F1"},{"id":" L14","uri":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","vocabulary":"Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)","name":"Transactional Relationships \u2022 Contracts and Reputation \u2022 Networks","parent_id":"L1"},{"id":" Q54","uri":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","vocabulary":"Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)","name":"Climate \u2022 Natural Disasters and Their Management \u2022 Global Warming","parent_id":"Q5"},{"id":" Q58","uri":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","vocabulary":"Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)","name":"Government Policy","parent_id":"Q5"},{"id":" G32","uri":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","vocabulary":"Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)","name":"Financing Policy \u2022 Financial Risk and Risk Management \u2022 Capital and Ownership Structure \u2022 Value of Firms \u2022 Goodwill","parent_id":"G3"}],"output":[{"type":"Working Paper","description":"Policy Research Working Papers (PRWP)","title":"Local Visibility Vs. Global Integrity: Evidence From Corporate Carbon Offsetting"}],"language":[{"name":"English","code":"EN"}],"technology_requirements":"Runt time: ~ 5 minutes","disclaimer":"The materials in the reproducibility packages are distributed as they were prepared by the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development\/The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this event do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank, the Executive Directors of the World Bank, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the materials included in the reproducibility package.","license":[{"name":"Modified BSD3","uri":"https:\/\/opensource.org\/license\/bsd-3-clause\/"}],"contacts":[{"name":"Alvaro Pedraza","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"apedrazamorales@worldbank.org"},{"name":"Reproducibility WBG","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"reproducibility@worldbank.org"}],"datasets":[{"name":"Worldwide Governance Indicators","citation":"Worldwide Governance Indicators, 2025 Revision, World Bank (www.govindicators.org), Accessed December 2025.","uri":"https:\/\/www.worldbank.org\/en\/publication\/worldwide-governance-indicators","license_uri":"https:\/\/www.worldbank.org\/en\/about\/legal\/terms-of-use-for-datasets","access_type":"Data is publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.","note":"Country-level institutional quality indicators from the World Bank\u2019s Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI). This project uses the governance estimate variable (WGI composite governance index), which captures institutional quality across six dimensions, including rule of law, regulatory quality, government effectiveness, control of corruption, political stability, and voice and accountability.\nFiles: Data\/Raw\/wgidataset_with_sourcedata-2025.xlsx.\n"},{"name":"FactSet GeoRevenue Data","citation":"FactSet Research Systems Inc. FactSet GeoRevenue and Firm Fundamentals. Proprietary database, accessed via institutional subscription. Data retrieved using FactSet Loader on August 26, 2025. https:\/\/www.factset.com\/data","license_uri":"https:\/\/www.factset.com\/legal","access_type":"Data access was granted directly to the study authors by the data owners\/managers. It was obtained with a custom data license that does not allow for redistribution and it is not included in the reproducibility package.","note":"Firm-level geographic revenue exposures are constructed using proprietary FactSet GeoRevenue and Fundamentals data (https:\/\/www.factset.com\/data). Access requires an institutional license, and raw data cannot be redistributed. The analysis is based on a FactSet Loader data pull from August 26, 2025; replication requires independent access to the same FactSet products (GeoRevenue, Fundamentals, and Data Management Solutions). More details in the README.\nFiles: Data\/Raw\/Proprietary\/Factset\/factsetgeo.dta"},{"name":"Carbon Offset Issuances and Retirements Database","note":"Compiled by the author using the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project \u2013 Offset Issuances & Retirements Database (version archive-v2024-12-year-end), downloaded on January 7, 2025. The raw source consists of registry files from major voluntary carbon markets (ACR, CAR, Gold Standard, and Verra), which were harmonized and linked to project-level characteristics following procedures documented in the README. \nFiles: Data\/Raw\/Proprietary\/Retirements_&_ListedFirms.dta","access_type":"Data is publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.","license_uri":"https:\/\/gspp.berkeley.edu\/berkeley-carbon-trading-project\/offsets-database","uri":" https:\/\/gspp.berkeley.edu\/berkeley-carbon-trading-project\/offsets-database","license":"Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0)","citation":"Barbara K. Haya, Aline Abayo, Xinyun Rong, Tyler Gail Bernard, Ivy S. So, Micah Elias. (2025, January). Voluntary Registry Offsets Database v2024-12-year-end, Berkeley Carbon Trading Project, University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved from: https:\/\/gspp.berkeley.edu\/faculty-and-impact\/centers\/cepp\/projects\/berkeley-carbon-trading-project\/offsets-database"},{"license_uri":"https:\/\/www.sylvera.com\/disclaimer","citation":"Sylvera Ltd. Carbon Credit Ratings and Price History Database. Proprietary database, accessed via institutional subscription. Data retrieved 2025.","name":"Sylvera Carbon Credit Ratings and Price Data","note":"Project-level carbon credit quality ratings and historical transaction price data are constructed using proprietary Sylvera subscription data (https:\/\/www.sylvera.com). The files used in this project include Full_ratings.csv (project-level ratings, scores, and metadata) and Price_history.csv (historical transaction prices). These data are used to construct measures of offset quality and to analyze price\u2013quality relationships across projects and countries.\n\nThe analysis is based on a subscription data extract obtained in 2025.\n\nFiles: Data\/Raw\/Proprietary\/Sylvera\/Full_ratings.csv; Price_history.csv\n","access_type":"Data access was granted directly to the study authors by the data owners\/managers. It was obtained with a custom data license that does not allow for redistribution and it is not included in the reproducibility package."},{"note":"Data compiled by the authors. Project-level carbon offset ratings were manually collected from MSCI Carbon Project Ratings (https:\/\/www.msci.com\/data-and-analytics\/carbon-markets\/carbon-project-ratings) and BeZero Carbon Ratings (https:\/\/bezerocarbon.com\/ratings\/listings). Neither provider offers bulk download or API access; ratings were retrieved individually via their registration-required web interfaces in January 2025.\n\nFor each ProjectID in Retirements_&_ListedFirms.dta, the MSCI and BeZero letter ratings and corresponding numerical scores were recorded (when available) and merged to the retirement-level dataset. See README for more information.\n\nFiles: Data\/Raw\/rating_Bezero_msci.dta\n","name":"Carbon Project Ratings (MSCI and BeZero)","access_type":"Data is publicly available but cannot be redistributed.\n","citation":"1. MSCI Inc. MSCI Carbon Project Ratings. Restricted-access web-based database. Accessed via the \u201cView our Ratings\u201d interface (registration required). Retrieved January 2025. https:\/\/www.msci.com\/data-and-analytics\/carbon-markets\/carbon-project-ratings.\n2. BeZero Carbon. BeZero Carbon Ratings. Web-based database (registration required). Retrieved 2025. https:\/\/bezerocarbon.com\/ratings\/listings"},{"access_type":"Data access was granted directly to the study authors by the data owners\/managers. It was obtained with a custom data license that does not allow for redistribution and it is not included in the reproducibility package.","note":"Firm-level greenhouse gas emissions, sales, and climate-target disclosures are constructed using proprietary ISS STOXX Climate Core \u2013 Impact data (https:\/\/www.issgovernance.com\/sustainability\/climate-solutions\/climate-analytics\/). The dataset covers years 2012\u20132023 and was delivered via secure SFTP on March 25, 2025.\n\nThe original data were acquired directly from ISS STOXX. The dataset iss_with_fs_id_unique.dta used in this replication package was generated by processing the raw ISS data in a separate reproducibility package (https:\/\/reproducibility.worldbank.org\/catalog\/441). The code and data for that package are currently under temporary embargo. The raw ISS data are proprietary and are not included in this replication package.\n\nFiles: Data\/Raw\/Proprietary\/ISS\/iss_with_fs_id_unique.dta\n","citation":"ISS STOXX. Climate Core \u2013 Impact (DataDesk Data Set): Firm-Level Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Sales, and Climate Target Disclosures. Proprietary database, accessed via institutional subscription. Data for years 2012\u20132023. Delivered via secure SFTP on March 25, 2025.","name":"ISS STOXX Climate Core \u2013 Impact","license_uri":"https:\/\/www.issgovernance.com\/terms-use\/"}],"technology_environment":"Paper exhibits were reproduced on a computer with the following specifications:\n\u2022 OS: Windows 11 Enterprise\n\u2022 Processor: INTEL(R) XEON(R) PLATINUM 8562Y+ 2.80 GHz (4 processors)\n\u2022 Memory available: 32.0 GB\n","reproduction_instructions":"To reproduce the findings in this paper, a replicator must:\n1. **Secure Access to Data:** Access the datasets not included in the package. See subsection Datasets for more details.\n2. **Download and Place Data:** Once the data is accessed, users should place it in the appropriate folder.\n3. **Run the Package:** After placing the data in the folder, update the global in line 8 of the do-file \"main\" to your folder's location and run the do-file.\n\nSince all the data is not included, the package includes the results produced by replicators. These files can be used to review the results presented in the paper. "},"tags":[{"tag":"DOI"},{"tag":"Open Code"},{"tag":"Restricted Data"}],"schematype":"script"}