Basel III and Paris Agreement: Policy influence on research trend and empirical findings in financial structure and corporate financial performance

This study examines how two major global policy milestones including the Basel III Accord (2010) and the Paris Agreement (2015), have influenced research on financial structure and firm financial performance. While these policies were designed to strengthen financial resilience and address systemic and climate-related risks, their influence on the development of academic research and the empirical evidence reported in the literature remains unclear. Using study counts and effect sizes (coefficients and standard errors) extracted from a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles published between 1990 and 2024, the study combines bibliometric trend analysis with econometric techniques. Research production is analyzed using interrupted time series, difference-in-differences, and event study models across economies, regions, and firm-size categories, while reported empirical estimates are evaluated using random-effects meta-regression with robustness checks for variance disparities, influential observations, and publication bias. The results show that both Basel III and the Paris Agreement significantly stimulated research activity, particularly in developing economies, SMEs, and regions such as East Asia and Pacific, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, with the Paris Agreement generating the strongest expansion. However, the policies did not systematically alter the reported empirical relationship between financial structure and firm financial performance. These findings suggest that global policy milestones primarily act as agenda-setting mechanisms that stimulate research attention without fundamentally changing the empirical evidence base. The study contributes to the literature by distinguishing between policy-driven growth in research activity and policy-driven changes in empirical findings, providing insights for researchers and policymakers concerned with financial stability, climate finance, and firm resilience.