Environmental Information Disclosure Quality,Credit Rating And Financing Costs Of Green Bonds

With the inclusion of "Beautiful China" in the five-year plan for the first time,green bonds have been developing rapidly since 2016 and occupy a pivotal position in China’s green financial system.Especially in recent years,green bonds in China have seen a spurt of growth,so the analysis of the factors influencing their financing costs will help the operation of China’s future green bond market.This paper conducts a study on the relationship between environmental information disclosure quality,credit rating and the financing cost of green bonds.Specifically,firstly,this paper reviews the literature on the three aspects of green bond financing cost,environmental information disclosure quality and credit rating.Second,the analysis is combined with information asymmetry theory,signaling theory and social responsibility theory,and the research hypothesis of this paper is proposed based on the content of the analysis.Third,this paper examines the impact of environmental information disclosure quality on green bond financing cost using 131 green corporate bonds,green financial bonds,green corporate bonds and other green debt financing instruments publicly issued by listed companies from 2016 to 2021,and explores the moderating role of credit ratings,the role of environmental information disclosure quality channels,and also conducts heterogeneity analysis on this basis.Fourth,in order to test the stability of the empirical results,robustness tests are conducted in this paper.Fifth,related comments are made based on the regression results of this paper.This paper finds that(1)environmental information disclosure quality is negatively related to the cost of green bond financing;(2)the higher the level of credit rating,the smaller the effect of environmental information disclosure quality on the cost of green bond financing;(3)liquidity expectations play a partially mediating role in the effect of environmental information disclosure quality on the cost of green bond financing;(4)the impact of environmental information disclosure quality on the cost of green bond financing is more significant for non-state-owned enterprises than for state-owned enterprises;(5)at the same time,the results of this paper pass the robustness test.Based on the results of the empirical study in this paper,the following countermeasures are proposed: on the one hand,from the perspective of environmental information disclosure quality,we propose that issuing enterprises should improve and refine the content of environmental information disclosure reports and disclose the compliance status clearly and accurately,and the regulatory authorities should set up standardized environmental information disclosure report guidelines and unify the content format of the reports.On the other hand,from the perspective of credit rating,we propose to vigorously cultivate and support local third-party professional certification agencies,strengthen supervision on the basis of clear requirements on their entry threshold,qualification requirements and standardized operation,and attach importance to the construction of green bond credit rating index system and fully reflect the differentiation of rating levels.