Official environmental credit evaluation and corporate debt concentration

IF 7.5 1区经济学 Q1 BUSINESS, FINANCE

International Review of Financial Analysis Pub Date : 2025-04-23 DOI:10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104268

Lin Fan , Jiali Wang , Zhongguo Lin , Huibin Du

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Debt concentration significantly influences the capital structure and financial flexibility of firms. Concurrently, the official environmental credit evaluation serves as an authoritative indicator for evaluating firms’ environmental performance, and notably influences the financing negotiation relationship between firms and creditors, thereby profoundly affecting their financing capabilities and debt management strategies. Utilizing data of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2009 to 2021, we investigate the impact of official environmental credit evaluation on firms’ debt concentration. The results show that firms with good environmental credit evaluations have a dispersed debt structure. In addition, when firms are in markets with higher risks, more serious information asymmetry or higher competition, the negative effect of good environmental credit evaluations on debt concentration is more obvious, reflecting a positive signaling effect. The dispersion of corporate debt is primarily driven by an increase in bank loans and commercial credit and a decrease in bonds. Our study underscores the authority and efficacy of official environmental evaluations over third-party ratings.

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官方环境信用评价与企业债务集中

债务集中度显著影响企业的资本结构和财务灵活性。同时，官方环境信用评价作为评价企业环境绩效的权威指标，显著影响企业与债权人的融资谈判关系，从而深刻影响企业的融资能力和债务管理策略。本文利用2009 - 2021年中国a股上市公司的数据，考察了官方环境信用评价对企业债务集中度的影响。结果表明，环境信用评价好的企业具有分散的债务结构。此外，当企业处于风险较高、信息不对称更严重或竞争更激烈的市场时，良好的环境信用评价对债务集中度的负向影响更为明显，体现出正向的信号效应。公司债务的分散主要是由银行贷款和商业信贷的增加以及债券的减少所驱动的。我们的研究强调了官方环境评估相对于第三方评级的权威性和有效性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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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.