Are State-Owned Enterprises Good Citizens in Environmental Governance? Evidence From the Control of Air Pollution in China

Abstract

As profit-seeking corporations, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have incentives to maximize profits from economic activities. However, subject to state ownership, SOEs are expected also to be more accountable for public welfare than their private counterparts. This study examines whether SOEs’ relative provincial dominance reinforces government’s demand to reduce air pollution in China, in the context of anticorruption and performance management. The results suggest that greater relative SOE dominance reduces sulfur dioxide emissions, but this effect is significant only in provinces with a low level of corruption case investigations. Performance management has no discernible moderating impact on the effect of SOE relative dominance.

Environmental Effects of Credit Allocation Structure and Environmental Expenditures: Evidence from China

“…In comparison to most small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), listed companies generally enjoy a certain scale and sound operating conditions (ST enterprises were excluded from the data). Nonetheless, private listed companies still assume less social and environmental responsibility than SOEs, a finding that is largely consistent with the previous empirical results [20,48]. Regarding the inverted "U-shaped" relationship between EXP and the explained variables, in the SEM model with the interaction term, its coefficient was significantly positive, suggesting that government environmental expenditures can mitigate the impact of corporate production on the environment to some extent.…”

“…China has introduced credit policies to encourage the development of small and medium enterprises, most of which are private enterprises. Generally, private enterprises have faced the demand of their owners for the possibility of profit [20]; they have little inclination toward environmental investment or pollutant treatment because of the extra cost. On the other hand, alongside the capacity for production, transactions, and other economic activities, SOEs are politically and administratively controlled by government [21,22].…”

Impact of Environmental Protection Regulations on Corporate Performance From Porter Hypothesis Perspective: A Study Based on Publicly Listed Manufacturing Firms Data

“…It is difficult to say that China's listed companies must do well in environmental protection compliance, but in a relative sense, listed firms should do well in environmental protection compliance comparing to non-listed firms. According to Liang and Langbein (2021), large firms have achieved better emission compliance rates, and state-owned enterprises have led the way in emission reduction. Environmental protection law enforcement is mainly aimed at companies with the worst compliance.…”

EDZs and Firms’ Environment Performance: Empirical Evidence From Chinese Firms

“…We find that EDZs have a significant impact on the pollution emission intensity of SOEs [Column (1)], but not on ]. The possible reason is that SOEs possess more capital and undertake more social responsibility for environmental protection compared with Non-SOEs (Liang and Langbein, 2021). We also examine the heterogeneity of firm scale.…”