Improving the efficiency of local fiscal expenditure is an important way to swiftly mitigate local fiscal risks according to the current economic situation. Based on the provincial panel data of 30 provinces in mainland China (except Tibet Autonomous Region) from 2007 to 2018, a Tobit spatial error model was constructed to test the impact of national auditing on local fiscal expenditure efficiency and to investigate the intermediary role of media attention. Findings show that the disclosing, resisting, and preventing functions of the national audit significantly improve local fiscal expenditure efficiency. Media attention does play an intermediary role, indicating that the information transmission function of the national audit has governance effects. Coupling of the national audit and media attention also positively affects local fiscal expenditure efficiency. This research expands the mechanism of national audits, as they affect the efficiency of local fiscal expenditure; it also provides new empirical evidence for improving such efficiency while mitigating fiscal risks at the local level.

This study investigates the mechanisms through which the executive pay gap affects the disclosure of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information. Utilizing panel data from China's A‐share listed firms between 2012 and 2020, our findings reveal a significant positive correlation between the executive pay gap and ESG disclosure, with real earnings management playing a partial mediating role. Notably, the impact of the executive pay gap on ESG disclosure is more pronounced in voluntary disclosure firms and those with low internal control levels, as compared to mandatory disclosure firms and those with high internal control levels. This study provides international evidence for the strategic disclosure behavior of ESG information and the necessity of ESG disclosure regulation.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance may be one of the strategies firms adopt to enhance their financial flexibility in response to an increasingly uncertain environment and difficult sustainability conditions. We use A-share listed firms in China from 2015 to 2020 as samples to test the influencing mechanism of ESG performance on financial flexibility. The empirical results indicate that ESG performance significantly enhances financial flexibility. The mechanism results show that financing constraints mediate ESG performance and firms’ financial flexibility. The additional analysis suggests that environmental uncertainty and market attention have significant positive moderating effects. That is, the promotion effect of firms in high uncertainty environments is more apparent, and the same is true in high market attention. This study supports instrumental stakeholder theory, signaling, and social impact hypothesis. It has enlightenment significance for firms, investors, and creditors to evaluate ESG performance and government departments to formulate relevant policies.

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