企业ESG表现与债券融资成本——基于信用利差视角

ESG Performance and the Cost of Corporate Bond——Based on the Perspective of Credit Spreads

ESG投资理念关注于企业财务绩效与自身对环境和社会外部效应的平衡关系,有助于推进可持续发展。本文选取我国A股上市公司2014~2021年公司债券发行数据为样本,对企业ESG表现与债券融资成本之间的关系进行研究。实证结果表明:企业ESG表现与债券融资成本呈负向相关,且信用评级在企业高ESG评级对债券融资成本降低作用中发挥中介效应。本文基于信用利差视角,为企业通过提升ESG表现降低债券融资成本提供了实证参考。

ESG means environmental,social,and governance.Besides the financial performance of enterprises,ESG also focuses on their external effects on the environment and society,which is conducive to sustainable development.Based on the corporate bond issuance data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2014 to 2021,this paper studies the relationship between ESG performance and bond financing cost.The results show that good corporate ESG performance can reduce bond financing costs,and credit rating plays a mediating role in the relationship.Further research shows that the negative effect of ESG rating on bond financing costs is stronger in non-state-owned enterprises and heavy pollution enterprises.Based on the perspective of credit spread,this paper provides an empirical reference for enterprises to reduce their bond financing costs by improving their ESG performance.