Can Mandatory Disclosure Policies Promote Corporate Environmental Responsibility?—Quasi-Natural Experimental Research on China

Abstract

Corporate environmental responsibility (CER) is an important component of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) report, and an important carrier for enterprises to disclose environmental protection information. Based on the corporate micro data, this paper evaluates the effect of a mandatory CSR disclosure policy on the fulfillment of corporate environmental responsibility by adopting the difference-in-differences model (DID) with the release of a mandatory disclosure policy of China in 2008 as a quasi-natural experiment. The study draws the following conclusions: First, a mandatory CSR disclosure policy can promote the fulfillment of CER. Second, after the implementation of a mandatory CSR disclosure policy, enterprises can improve their CER level through two channels: improving the quality of environmental management disclosure and increasing the number of patents. Third, the heterogeneity of the impacts of mandatory CSR disclosure on CER is reflected in three aspects: different CER levels, different corporate scales and a different property rights structure. In terms of the CER level, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the CER level and mandatory CSR disclosure effect. In terms of the corporate scale, mandatory disclosure of CSR plays a greater role in large-scale enterprises. In terms of the structure of property rights, mandatory CSR disclosure has a greater effect on non-state-owned enterprises.

Sustainable corporate environmental information disclosure: Evidence for green recovery from polluting firms of China

“…Next, external factors include regulatory policies, media attention, industry characteristics, and market competitiveness, among others. Regulatory policies tend to pressure firms to comply with regulations; these firms are more inclined to disclose high-quality environmental information (Barbu et al, 2014;Liu et al, 2021). Firms in developed regions are more active in disclosing environmental information due to stricter regulatory measures (Park and Peng, 2013).…”

The Relationship between Environmental Regulation, Pollution and Corporate Environmental Responsibility

“…In order to solve the continuous serious pollution problem, the Chinese government has strengthened environmental regulations to prevent and solve the problems of environmental pollution and overcapacity [7,8]. It is generally believed that environmental regulation refers to the relevant policies and measures of the government to reduce pollution and promote green production by restricting the production and operation activities of firms.…”

Corporate social responsibility regulation in capital market and environmental information disclosure of listed companies: A quasi-natural experiment from China

“…Compared to Yekini et al (2019), Ren et al (2020) and Liu et al (2021a), this paper expands the existing literature in the following aspects. First, this paper exploits the CSR regulation data of SZSE for the first time, which expands quasi-natural experiments research on CSR system regulation.…”

“…Compared to other industries, heavy-polluting industries are more strictly monitored and more responsive to regulation (Zeng et al, 2021). SOEs are controlled by the state and pay more attention to CSR and environmental information disclosure than non-SOEs (Yekini et al, 2019;Ren et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2021a). Environmental regulations tend to influence SOEs more significantly (Jiang et al, 2014).…”

“…For example, Yekini et al (2019) examined environmental information disclosure status of listed companies following the issuance of the "Environmental Information Disclosure Guidelines for Chinese Listed Companies" by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) in 2010, without using a quasi-natural experiment approach. Ren et al (2020) and Liu et al (2021a) use the "Guidelines on Environmental Disclosure of Listed Companies on the SSE" as a quasi-natural experiment, and employ DID model to investigate the impact of mandatory CSR disclosure policies on win-win for firm's environmental and economic performance, and the fulfillment of corporate environmental responsibility. However, limited literature has examined the differences in listed companies' behavior from the exchange perspective of their institutional regulation and implementation effects.…”