IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v14y2024i1p21582440241233376.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Green Finance Policy Contribute to ESG Disclosure of Listed Companies? A Quasi-Natural Experiment from China

Author

Listed:
  • Changjiang Zhang
  • Sihan Zhang
  • Yue Zhang
  • Yuqi Yang
  • Kai Lan

Abstract

In 2016, the People’s Bank of China (PBC) together with multiple departments issued the Guidance on Building a Green Financial System (the Guidance ), which marked a great breakthrough in China’s green finance policy. Aiming to clarify the actual impact and underlying mechanisms of green finance policy on Chinese listed companies’ ESG disclosure quality, this study employs the difference-in-differences (DID) model and examines the impact of the Guidance on ESG disclosure practices of A-share listed companies on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) during the period 2006 to 2022. This study reveals a positive correlation between the Guidance and listed companies’ ESG disclosure. Upon further examination, it becomes evident that the Guidance has a more noticeable positive impact on the quality of ESG disclosure among listed companies that operate in industries with high levels of pollution, state-owned enterprises, and regions that exhibit greater levels of economic development. This paper provides essential insights to policymakers, facilitating a deeper understanding and more thorough assessment of the economic implications of green finance policies. Additionally, it acts as a strategic resource for listed companies, guiding the enhancement of corporate ESG disclosures and the implementation of ESG strategies influenced by green finance policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Changjiang Zhang & Sihan Zhang & Yue Zhang & Yuqi Yang & Kai Lan, 2024. "Does Green Finance Policy Contribute to ESG Disclosure of Listed Companies? A Quasi-Natural Experiment from China," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(1), pages 21582440241, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:14:y:2024:i:1:p:21582440241233376
    DOI: 10.1177/21582440241233376
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21582440241233376
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/21582440241233376?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chenyu Han & Yiming Wang & Yingying Xu, 2019. "Efficiency and Multifractality Analysis of the Chinese Stock Market: Evidence from Stock Indices before and after the 2015 Stock Market Crash," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-15, March.
    2. Yasir Shahab & Collins G Ntim & Farid Ullah, 2019. "The brighter side of being socially responsible: CSR ratings and financial distress among Chinese state and non-state owned firms," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(3), pages 180-186, February.
    3. Sinha, Avik & Mishra, Shekhar & Sharif, Arshian & Yarovaya, Larisa, 2021. "Does Green Financing help to improve the Environmental & Social Responsibility? Designing SDG framework through Advanced Quantile modelling," MPRA Paper 108150, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2021.
    4. Yu, Chin-Hsien & Wu, Xiuqin & Zhang, Dayong & Chen, Shi & Zhao, Jinsong, 2021. "Demand for green finance: Resolving financing constraints on green innovation in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    5. Jia Xue & Youshi He & Ming Liu & Yin Tang & Hanyang Xu, 2021. "Incentives for Corporate Environmental Information Disclosure in China: Public Media Pressure, Local Government Supervision and Interactive Effects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-20, September.
    6. Farman Ullah Khan & Junrui Zhang & Muhammad Usman & Alina Badulescu & Muhammad Safdar Sial, 2019. "Ownership Reduction in State-Owned Enterprises and Corporate Social Responsibility: Perspective from Secondary Privatization in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-13, February.
    7. Cosmina L. Voinea & Fawad Rauf & Khwaja Naveed & Cosmin Fratostiteanu, 2022. "The Impact of CEO Duality and Financial Performance on CSR Disclosure: Empirical Evidence from State-Owned Enterprises in China," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, January.
    8. Baron David P & Agus Harjoto Maretno & Jo Hoje, 2011. "The Economics and Politics of Corporate Social Performance," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(2), pages 1-48, August.
    9. Eunsoo Kim & Suyon Kim & Jaehong Lee, 2021. "Do Foreign Investors Affect Carbon Emission Disclosure? Evidence from South Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-14, September.
    10. Die Wu & Hafeezullah Memon, 2022. "Public Pressure, Environmental Policy Uncertainty, and Enterprises’ Environmental Information Disclosure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-18, June.
    11. Lei Wang & Heikki Juslin, 2009. "The Impact of Chinese Culture on Corporate Social Responsibility: The Harmony Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(3), pages 433-451, October.
    12. Yuan Yuan Hu & Yanhui Zhu & Jon Tucker & Yuxiao Hu, 2018. "Ownership influence and CSR disclosure in China," Accounting Research Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 31(1), pages 8-21, May.
    13. Yuexiang Yang & Zhihui Du & Zhen Zhang & Guanqun Tong & Rongxi Zhou, 2021. "Does ESG Disclosure Affect Corporate-Bond Credit Spreads? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-15, July.
    14. Haifeng Huang & Jing Zhang, 2021. "Research on the Environmental Effect of Green Finance Policy Based on the Analysis of Pilot Zones for Green Finance Reform and Innovations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-14, March.
    15. Mao-Chang Wang, 2017. "The Relationship between Firm Characteristics and the Disclosure of Sustainability Reporting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-14, April.
    16. Neu, D. & Warsame, H. & Pedwell, K., 1998. "Managing public impressions: environmental disclosures in annual reports," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 265-282, April.
    17. Criscuolo, Chiara & Menon, Carlo, 2015. "Environmental policies and risk finance in the green sector: Cross-country evidence," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 38-56.
    18. Baron, David P. & Agus Harjoto, Maretno & Jo, Hoje, 2011. "The Economics and Politics of Corporate Social Performance," Business and Politics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(2), pages 1-46, August.
    19. Kun Luo & Sirui Wu, 2022. "Corporate sustainability and analysts' earnings forecast accuracy: Evidence from environmental, social and governance ratings," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1465-1481, September.
    20. Mingyuan Guo & Yanfang Hu & Yu Zhang & Fuge Tian, 2019. "State-Owned Shareholding and CSR: Do Multiple Financing Methods Matter?—Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-15, March.
    21. Rui Albuquerque & Yrjo Koskinen & Shuai Yang & Chendi Zhang, 2020. "Resiliency of Environmental and Social Stocks: An Analysis of the Exogenous COVID-19 Market Crash," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 9(3), pages 593-621.
    22. Yuan Ma & Qiang Zhang & Qiyue Yin & Bingcheng Wang, 2019. "The Influence of Top Managers on Environmental Information Disclosure: The Moderating Effect of Company’s Environmental Performance," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-15, April.
    23. Irina Ervits, 2023. "CSR reporting in China’s private and state-owned enterprises: A mixed methods comparative analysis," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(1), pages 55-83, February.
    24. Indra Abeysekera & Feng Li & Yingjun Lu, 2021. "Financial disclosure quality and sustainability disclosure quality. A case in China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(5), pages 1-20, May.
    25. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    26. Chinnadurai Kathiravan & Murugesan Selvam & Sankaran Venkateswar & S. Balakrishnan, 2021. "Investor behavior and weather factors: evidences from Asian region," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 299(1), pages 349-373, April.
    27. Yanhong Liu & Jia Lei & Yihua Zhang, 2021. "A Study on the Sustainable Relationship among the Green Finance, Environment Regulation and Green-Total-Factor Productivity in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-27, October.
    28. Iman Harymawan & Fajar Kristanto Gautama Putra & Bayu Arie Fianto & Wan Adibah Wan Ismail, 2021. "Financially Distressed Firms: Environmental, Social, and Governance Reporting in Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-18, September.
    29. Bhandari, Avishek & Javakhadze, David, 2017. "Corporate social responsibility and capital allocation efficiency," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 354-377.
    30. Feng Wang & Siyue Yang & Ann Reisner & Na Liu, 2019. "Does Green Credit Policy Work in China? The Correlation between Green Credit and Corporate Environmental Information Disclosure Quality," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-15, January.
    31. Chong-En Bai & Jiangyong Lu & Zhigang Tao, 2006. "The Multitask Theory of State Enterprise Reform: Empirical Evidence from China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 353-357, May.
    32. Harrison Hong & Marcin Kacperczyk, 2010. "Competition and Bias," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(4), pages 1683-1725.
    33. Albrizio, Silvia & Kozluk, Tomasz & Zipperer, Vera, 2017. "Environmental policies and productivity growth: Evidence across industries and firms," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 209-226.
    34. Chen, Tao & Harford, Jarrad & Lin, Chen, 2015. "Do analysts matter for governance? Evidence from natural experiments," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 383-410.
    35. Xiaojuan Wu & Patrycja Hąbek, 2021. "Trends in Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting. The Case of Chinese Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-16, August.
    36. Tong Zhao & Haihua Zhou & Jinde Jiang & Wenyan Yan, 2022. "Impact of Green Finance and Environmental Regulations on the Green Innovation Efficiency in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-17, March.
    37. Cedric Dawkins & John Fraas, 2011. "Coming Clean: The Impact of Environmental Performance and Visibility on Corporate Climate Change Disclosure," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 100(2), pages 303-322, May.
    38. Dev R. Mishra, 2017. "Post-innovation CSR Performance and Firm Value," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 285-306, January.
    39. Fawad Rauf & Cosmina L. Voinea & Khwaja Naveed & Cosmin Fratostiteanu, 2021. "CSR Disclosure: Effects of Political Ties, Executive Turnover and Shareholder Equity. Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-18, March.
    40. Pablo Archel & Javier Husillos & Carlos Larrinaga & Crawford Spence, 2009. "Social disclosure, legitimacy theory and the role of the state," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(8), pages 1284-1307, October.
    41. Ningning Kong & Yu Bao & Yiyuan Sun & Yawen Wang, 2023. "Corporations’ ESG for Sustainable Investment in China: The Moderating Role of Regional Marketization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-22, February.
    42. Yanbo Zhang & Xiang Li, 2022. "The Impact of the Green Finance Reform and Innovation Pilot Zone on the Green Innovation—Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-20, June.
    43. Xin Huang & Xianling Jiang & Wei Liu & Qian Chen, 2021. "Business Group-Affiliation and Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from Listed Companies in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-21, February.
    44. Maretno Harjoto & Indrarini Laksmana & Robert Lee, 2015. "Board Diversity and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(4), pages 641-660, December.
    45. Meibo Hu & Lawrence Loh, 2018. "Board Governance and Sustainability Disclosure: A Cross-Sectional Study of Singapore-Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-14, July.
    46. Michael L. Barnett & Robert M. Salomon, 2012. "Does it pay to be really good? addressing the shape of the relationship between social and financial performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(11), pages 1304-1320, November.
    47. Herenia Gutiérrez-Ponce & Julian Chamizo-González & Nuria Arimany-Serrat, 2022. "Disclosure of Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance Information by Spanish Companies: A Compliance Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-19, March.
    48. Fushuai Wang & Wenxia Cai & Ehsan Elahi, 2021. "Do Green Finance and Environmental Regulation Play a Crucial Role in the Reduction of CO 2 Emissions? An Empirical Analysis of 126 Chinese Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-20, November.
    49. Soohun Kim & Aaron Yoon, 2023. "Analyzing Active Fund Managers’ Commitment to ESG: Evidence from the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(2), pages 741-758, February.
    50. Amir Barnea & Amir Rubin, 2010. "Corporate Social Responsibility as a Conflict Between Shareholders," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(1), pages 71-86, November.
    51. Clarkson, Peter M. & Li, Yue & Richardson, Gordon D. & Vasvari, Florin P., 2008. "Revisiting the relation between environmental performance and environmental disclosure: An empirical analysis," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(4-5), pages 303-327.
    52. Seong Mi Bae & Md. Abdul Kaium Masud & Jong Dae Kim, 2018. "A Cross-Country Investigation of Corporate Governance and Corporate Sustainability Disclosure: A Signaling Theory Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-16, July.
    53. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    54. Xiangan Ding & Ying Qu & Mohsin Shahzad, 2019. "The Impact of Environmental Administrative Penalties on the Disclosure of Environmental Information," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-24, October.
    55. Amir Gholami & John Sands & Habib Ur Rahman, 2022. "Environmental, Social and Governance Disclosure and Value Generation: Is the Financial Industry Different?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-17, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zeng, Qingrui & Hafeez, Muhammad & Sher, Falak & Ullah, Sana, 2024. "Environmental higher education, formal finance, energy security risk, and renewable energy investment in China: An aggregate and disaggregate analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xuemei Zhou & Sifeng Nian, 2024. "Sustainable Pathways: ESG Disclosure Performance and Optimization in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-25, May.
    2. Angelidis, Timotheos & Michairinas, Athanasios & Sakkas, Athanasios, 2024. "World ESG performance and economic activity," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    3. Adam Arian & John Sands & Stuart Tooley, 2023. "Industry and Stakeholder Impacts on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Financial Performance: Consumer vs. Industrial Sectors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-21, August.
    4. Xiaopeng Wang & Xueyao Shen & Yongliang Yang, 2020. "Does Environmental Information Disclosure Make Firms’ Investments More Efficient? Evidence from Measure 2007 of Chinese A-Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-16, March.
    5. Chowdhury, Hasibul & Hodgson, Allan & Hasan, Mostafa Monzur, 2022. "Does a competitive external labour market affect corporate social responsibility? Evidence from industry tournament incentives," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C).
    6. Emmanuel Adegbite & Yilmaz Guney & Frank Kwabi & Suleiman Tahir, 2019. "Financial and corporate social performance in the UK listed firms: the relevance of non-linearity and lag effects," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 105-158, January.
    7. Jan Diebecker & Friedrich Sommer, 2017. "The impact of corporate sustainability performance on information asymmetry: the role of institutional differences," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 471-517, March.
    8. Ming Chen & Lina Song & Xiaobo Zhu & Yanshuo Zhu & Chuanhao Liu, 2023. "Does Green Finance Promote the Green Transformation of China’s Manufacturing Industry?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-22, April.
    9. Sana Noor & Abubakr Saeed & Muhammad Saad Baloch & Muhammad Awais, 2020. "CSR permanency, family ownership, and firm value: Evidence from emerging economies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(5), pages 2135-2149, September.
    10. Muhammad Wahyuddin Abdullah & Rika Musriani & Alim Syariati & Hadriana Hanafie, 2020. "Carbon Emission Disclosure in Indonesian Firms: The Test of Media-exposure Moderating Effects," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(6), pages 732-741.
    11. Pandej Chintrakarn & Pornsit Jiraporn & Shenghui Tong & Napatsorn Jiraporn & Richard Proctor, 2020. "How do independent directors view corporate social responsibility (CSR)? Evidence from a quasi‐natural experiment," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 55(4), pages 697-716, November.
    12. Rohaida Abdul Latif & Kamarun Nisham Taufil Mohd & Hasnah Kamardin & Arifatul Husna Mohd Ariff, 2023. "Determinants of Sustainability Disclosure Quality among Plantation Companies in Malaysia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-23, February.
    13. Jinhua Cui & Hoje Jo & Haejung Na, 2018. "Does Corporate Social Responsibility Affect Information Asymmetry?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(3), pages 549-572, March.
    14. Yongliang Yang & Jin Wen & Yi Li, 2020. "The Impact of Environmental Information Disclosure on the Firm Value of Listed Manufacturing Firms: Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-20, February.
    15. Ye Cai & Hoje Jo & Carrie Pan, 2012. "Doing Well While Doing Bad? CSR in Controversial Industry Sectors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 108(4), pages 467-480, July.
    16. Shi, Jinyan & Yu, Conghui & Li, Yanxi & Wang, Tianhe, 2022. "Does green financial policy affect debt-financing cost of heavy-polluting enterprises? An empirical evidence based on Chinese pilot zones for green finance reform and innovations," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    17. Bigelli, Marco & Mengoli, Stefano & Sandri, Sandro, 2023. "ESG score, board structure and the impact of the non-financial reporting directive on European firms," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    18. Maretno Harjoto & Indrarini Laksmana & Robert Lee, 2015. "Board Diversity and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(4), pages 641-660, December.
    19. Witold J. Henisz & Sinziana Dorobantu & Lite J. Nartey, 2014. "Spinning gold: The financial returns to stakeholder engagement," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(12), pages 1727-1748, December.
    20. Zhu, Minghao & Yeung, Andy C.L. & Zhou, Honggeng, 2021. "Diversify or concentrate: The impact of customer concentration on corporate social responsibility," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:14:y:2024:i:1:p:21582440241233376. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.