低碳转型能否提升企业环境-社会-治理表现?——基于“低碳城市试点”的准自然实验

Can the Low Carbon Transition Improve the Environmental, Social and Governance Performance of Enterprises?——A Quasi-natural Experiment Based on “Low Carbon Pilot Cities”

以低碳城市试点政策的实施作为准自然实验,依据2009—2020年中国A股上市公司数据,运用多时点双重差分模型,考量低碳城市试点政策对企业环境-社会-治理(ESG)表现的影响。结果显示:低碳城市试点政策能有效提升企业的ESG表现;低碳城市试点政策通过提高企业绿色技术创新水平和环境治理投资来提升企业的ESG表现。进一步研究发现,低碳城市试点政策对国有企业,非重污染企业,企业市值压力和财务风险更低的企业、市场关注度更高的企业,ESG表现的提升作用更显著。鉴于此,地方政府应发挥政策的引导作用,分类推进重污染行业的低碳转型。

This paper uses the implementation of the “Low Carbon Pilot Cities” policy as a “quasi-natural experiment” to analyze the impact mechanism of this policy on the ESG performance of enterprises, and uses a multi-period DID model to empirically test the impact of the“Low Carbon Pilot Cities” policy on the ESG performance of enterprises based on the data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2020. The study shows that the “Low Carbon Pilot Cities” policy can effectively improve the ESG performance of enterprises;the implementation of the policy can improve the ESG performance of enterprises in pilot cities compared with those in non-pilot cities. The “Low Carbon Pilot Cities” policy enhances the ESG performance of firms through their level of green technology innovation and investment in environmental governance. Further study finds that the “Low Carbon Pilot Cities” policy has a stronger effect on the ESG performance of enterprises in state-owned enterprises, non-heavy polluters, enterprises with lower enterprise value pressure and financial risk, and enterprises with higher market attention.In view of this, local governments should play a guiding role of policies to promote the low-carbon transformation of heavy polluting industries in a categorical manner.