Research On The Correlation Among Environmental Regulations, Political Connections And Carbon Information Disclosure

Since January 2013, the eastern China has a wide range of haze weather. The haze weather phenomenon makes the public begin to pay attention to the carbon disclosure. Besides, it also initiates the debate on the effectiveness of the government regulations. How the government environmental regulations affect the level of enterprises’ carbon disclosure? Does it have promoting effects on the carbon disclosure or have no effects. What is more, whether there are other factors weakening the effects of government regulations, which affects the level of enterprises’ carbon disclosure. To solve these problems is not only conducive to government departments to put forward effective environmental protection measures to solve the environmental problems in China, but also has practical significance to the study of carbon information disclosure of listed companies.For the current research status, literature review, empirical analysis and other methods are used in the course of the study aiming to explore the correlation among environmental regulations, political connections and carbon information disclosure. In support of the theory of environmental economics, we choose the Shanghai A shares of listed companies who issue social responsibility reports during the period of 2010 to 2012 as our examples. Totally, we choose 996 examples. During the process of studying, we take the listed companies’carbon information disclosure index as the dependent variable. Besides, we take the government environmental regulation intensity, political connections and the cross item as independent variables. And we also choose some control variables. Then we put forward research hypothesis, design research models. Moreover, we carry on the descriptive analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis. In the descriptive analysis of the sample data, we find that the listed companies’ carbon information disclosure present a rising trend in recent years. But the disclosure degree is significant different. In multiple regression statistical analysis of the sample data, we can conclude that the government environmental regulations promote the level of listed companies’ carbon information disclosure; the political connections have a negative impact on the disclosure. What is more, political connections could weaken the promoting effects. This study also shows that the above conclusions are different in extend between two kinds of ownership enterprises.On the basis of theoretical study and empirical research, corresponding policy recommendations are proposed in this paper. Such as conducting carbon accounting theory research, improving relevant laws and regulations, strengthening supervisions of the relevant departments etc. Only by multi-levels and multiple perspectives, can we improve the listed companies’ levels of carbon information disclosure and fully promote the vigorous development of China’s low-carbon economy.