Does social responsibility reform curb corporate greenwashing: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China

IF 7.5 1区经济学 Q1 BUSINESS, FINANCE

International Review of Financial Analysis Pub Date : 2024-09-26 DOI:10.1016/j.irfa.2024.103623

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Greenwashing has significantly impeded the advancement of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices and undermined the sustainable finance. To better fulfill the social responsibility of corporations, the Chinese government spearheaded reforms among state-owned enterprises in 2016. Using data of China's A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2021, this study uses a difference-in-differences (DID) model to investigate the effects of the social responsibility reform on corporate greenwashing. We find that social responsibility reform significantly restrains corporate greenwashing, and this effect is heterogeneous by firm characteristics. The mechanism analysis indicates that the improvement of firms' environmental performance disclosure behavior and the moderation of external regulatory pressure from the CSRC are important channels for restricting corporate greenwashing. Overall, our findings provide new insights into reducing corporate greenwash behavior and offer microscopic evidence for the objective evaluation of the effects of China's social responsibility reform.

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社会责任改革能否遏制企业的 "洗绿 "行为：来自中国准自然实验的证据

"洗绿 "严重阻碍了环境、社会和治理（ESG）实践的发展，破坏了可持续金融。为了更好地履行企业的社会责任，中国政府于 2016 年在国有企业中率先进行了改革。本研究利用 2011 年至 2021 年中国 A 股上市公司的数据，采用差分法（DID）模型研究了社会责任改革对企业 "洗绿 "的影响。研究发现，社会责任改革对企业 "洗绿 "行为有明显抑制作用，且这种抑制作用因企业特征的不同而具有异质性。机理分析表明，企业环境绩效披露行为的改善和中国证监会外部监管压力的缓和是限制企业 "洗绿 "的重要渠道。总之，我们的研究结果为减少企业 "洗绿 "行为提供了新的视角，也为客观评价中国社会责任改革的效果提供了微观证据。

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来源期刊

International Review of Financial Analysis BUSINESS, FINANCE-

CiteScore

10.30

自引率

9.80%

发文量

366

期刊介绍： The International Review of Financial Analysis (IRFA) is an impartial refereed journal designed to serve as a platform for high-quality financial research. It welcomes a diverse range of financial research topics and maintains an unbiased selection process. While not limited to U.S.-centric subjects, IRFA, as its title suggests, is open to valuable research contributions from around the world.