Research On The Relationship Between Corporate Environmental Information Disclosure And Earnings Quality Based On Threshold Effect

As a part of corporate social responsibility,there is still no consensus on whether corporate environmental information disclosure can promote or inhibit earnings quality.The higher the quality of environmental information disclosure,the more attention the corporations will receive in the process of production and operation.On the one hand,will corporations with better environmental performance consciously reduce their earnings management behaviors when the quality of environmental information disclosure is higher,or will they use positive environmental information as a "weapon" to divert outside attention and then increase the level of earnings management? On the other hand,will corporations with poor environmental performance enhance their earnings management degree due to the increased political cost when the quality of environmental information disclosure is higher,or will they focus on the overall situation to improve the quality of earnings? These issues are still inconclusive.This thesis holds that the relationship between corporate environmental information disclosure and earnings quality is different in different contexts.Corporate internal governance structure and external government supervision will affect the probability of moral hazard,which in turn changes the relationship.With the help of threshold effect thinking,this thesis tries to study the relationship between corporate environmental information disclosure and earnings quality with changes in corporate internal and external situations.We use the data of 175 listed companies in heavy-polluting industries in Shenzhen A-share market from 2010 to 2017 to explore the internal governance threshold effect and the external government supervision threshold effect.The study draws the following conclusions:(1)There is a dual threshold effect of ownership concentration on the relationship between corporate environmental information disclosure and earnings quality.That is,when ownership concentration,namely the shareholding ratio of the largest shareholder,is between 19.93% and 53.89%,corporate environmental information disclosure is significantly positively correlated with earnings quality,and the relationship in the rest of the range is not significant;(2)there is an executive scale single threshold effect.That is,when the proportion of senior executives is higher than 27.78%,the relationship between the two is significantly positive;(3)there is a government regulation single threshold effect.That is,when the pollution source disclosure index is higher than 36.2,corporate environmental information disclosure is significantly positively correlated with earnings quality.Finally,according to the research conclusions,we come up with some thoughts for optimizing the governance structure of corporations and the intensity of supervision of the government.Possible contributions of this thesis are as follows :(1)Setting threshold effect model,focusing on the selection of situational conditions,drawing more rigorous conclusions and enriching the existing research;(2)The research conclusion has important practical significance,which is helpful for corporations to optimize their internal governance structure and for regulatory authorities to promote the improvement of corporate environmental information disclosure in an orderly manner.