上市公司环境绩效与财务绩效的相关性研究

Research on Relationship Between Environmental Performance and Financial Performance of Chinese Listed Companies

回顾了国内外关于环境绩效与财务绩效相关性的理论及实证研究成果,在此基础上提出以单位排污费及其年度增量分别作为环境绩效的代理变量,以Tobin-Q值作为财务绩效的代理变量,以我国A股上市公司2006-2009年的年报数据为样本,综合考虑公司规模、资产负债率等多种控制变量,采用格兰杰(Granger)检验和OLS回归分析等方法研究了我国企业环境绩效对财务绩效的相关性。研究表明,单纯的环境末端治理行为并不一定带来财务绩效的改善,由此引起的环境绩效与财务绩效之间的相关性也不明确。但积极有效的环境预防管理则可带来环境和财务绩效的共赢,环境绩效与财务绩效表现出显著的正相关关系。并且,环境绩效对财务绩效可能出现边际效用递减现象。研究结论说明,在我国当前环境信息披露严重缺乏的情况下,财务报表中的排污费不啻为研究环境绩效与财务绩效相关性的一个良好切入点。结论有助于鼓励上市公司积极主动地开展环境预防管理,从而保持和提升公司的竞争力优势。

After reviewing the worldwide studies on the relationship between the environmental performance and financial performance, the pollution charge and its annual increment are recommended for the first time as the proxy variables for the environmental performance of an enterprise, and an empirical examination of the relationship between environmental performance and financial performance as represented by the Tobin-Q value is performed. The methodological approach of this study mainly includes descriptive statistics, Granger causality test and OLS regression analysis. The sample data are collected from the annual reports of the A-share listed companies between 2006 and 2009, and various control variables such as corporation size are considered during the regression analysis. The study shows that, the just end-of-pipe pollution control approach does not necessarily improve the financial performance, indicating uncertain relativity between the environmental performance and financial performance. However, proactive pollution prevention management should be benefitial to both environmental and financial performance, leading to significant positive relationship between the two. Furthermore, the effect of environmental performance on financial performance may be subject to the law of diminishing marginal utility. It also indicates that the pollution charge should be a good starting point for the study of the relationship between environmental performance and financial performance particularly in the situation of lack of environmental information disclosure. Our resuhs are useful to the managers in that they show that active environmental prevention management can help improve the company＇s competitive advantage.