MSCI关注、ESG披露及其经济后果

MSCI Concern,ESG Disclosure and It's Economic Consequences

文章以2007-2020年中国上市公司为研究对象,实证考察国际MSCI对企业ESG的关注对企业披露ESG报告决策的影响,具体通过构造多期DID模型,检验中国企业在进入MSCI评级前后ESG披露选择的变化。研究发现,得到MSCI关注的企业更可能披露ESG报告,表现为在被MSCI关注的年度,企业披露ESG报告的概率更高。同时,在首次被MSCI关注后,企业后续年度更可能披露ESG报告。截面分析发现,相比于国有企业,MSCI关注对民营企业的影响更加显著;MSCI评级越低,企业披露ESG报告的概率越大。进一步研究发现,因MSCI关注而披露ESG报告后,企业会获得更多政府补助,受到违规处罚的概率明显降低,融资约束得到显著缓解。结论表明,MSCI评级通过市场软监管对企业ESG报告的披露意愿和经济后果产生显著影响,这对未来发展ESG评级和ESG投资基金具有一定的实践意义。

Taking China's A-share listed firms from 2007 to 2020 as research ob-jects,this paper empirically tests how the concern of Morgan Stanley Capital Internation-al(MSCI)on Chinese firms'environmental,social,and governance(ESG)disclosure in-fluences their subsequent ESG disclosure practices.Specifically,we performed a time-varying differences-in-differences(DID)estimation model to examine the change of China's firms'ESG disclosure practices before and after MSCI rating system.The results show that firms that receive MSCI concern are more likely to disclose ESG reports,as shown by the higher probability of disclosing ESG reports in the year covered by MSCI.Meanwhile,the effect is more significant for firms rated for the first time.Cross-section analysis indicates that the effect of MSCI concern on ESG disclosure is more significant in private firms and the lower the rating,the greater the probability of firms'disclosing ESG reports.Further tests illustrate that firms disclosing ESG reports after MSCI concern receive more government subsidy,are less likely to face penalty for violation and reduce their financing constraints significantly.The conclusion indicates that the ESG rating of MSCI has significant impact on the decision of firms'ESG disclosure practices and eco-nomic performances through soft market supervision,which provides certain practical im-plications for the future development of ESG rating and investment funds.