Green signalling under environmental pressure: Does local government environmental regulatory pressure promote corporate environmental information disclosure?

Corporate environmental information disclosure (EID) is an important green signal. While prior literature well documents that the leading officials’ accountability audit of natural resources assets (AANRA) can effectively enhance the environmental regulatory pressure of local governments, little is known about whether this pressure can promote corporate EID. Utilizing panel data of 2,073 Chinese industrial listed enterprises from 2008–2021, we employ a staggered difference-in-difference-in-differences approach and identify the causal effect of AANRA on corporate EID. The results show that the EID quality of heavily polluting enterprises in AANRA cities increases by 3.28 % after the implementation of AANRA, and this effect persists. Meanwhile, AANRA does not trigger selective disclosure of enterprises, and its improvement of negative EID is more effective. Our mechanism analysis suggests that AANRA improves corporate EID through environmental incentive effect, environmental, social and governance (ESG) engagement effect and cost constraint effect. Moreover, the effect of AANRA varies with firms, industries, and regions, and it is more pronounced in non-state-owned firms, small firms, growing and mature firms, highly competitive firms, high-tech firms, and firms located in the eastern region, high audit intensity region and better institutional region. Our findings highlight the role of government environmental regulatory pressure in corporate EID, providing new insights into green transformation for enterprises in developing countries like China.