| In view of the current serious environmental pollution problem,the Chinese government attaches great importance to it,especially since the party’s 18th National Congress raised the ecological civilization construction to an unprecedented strategic height in 2012,China’s environmental regulation has become increasingly strict.However,while environmental regulations have improved the ecological environment,it has also brought a lot of impact to enterprises,especially those in heavy polluting industries.As an important person in charge of environmental pollution,enterprises in heavy pollution industries are affected by environmental regulations,which can not be ignored.On the one hand,they must control pollution reduction and meet the requirements of external environmental regulation.On the other hand,they must balance their economic interests and long-term green development and make appropriate investment decisions.This is not only related to the development of the company itself,but also affects the long-term growth of China’s overall economy.Therefore,this paper takes listed companies in heavy polluting industries as the research object,and explores the impact of environmental regulation on its capital cost and investment expenditure,in order to enrich the economic consequences of environmental regulation,and provide reference for the government to better control the effect of environmental regulation and enterprises to make clear their own impact and actively respond to it.On the basis of summarizing the domestic and foreign research results on environmental regulation,capital cost and enterprise investment,this paper puts forward the hypothesis of the relationship between environmental regulation and capital cost,investment expenditure according to the relevant theories of environmental regulation,information asymmetry and enterprise investment,and further explores the impact mechanism of environmental regulation on enterprise investment expenditure,that is,whether debt capital cost plays a mediating role in the relationship between environmental regulation and investment expenditure.After screening a series of data samples,this paper finally takes the panel data of 641 heavily polluted A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2012 to 2017 as samples,uses the fixed effect model and the intermediary effect test model to test the hypothesis,analyses the empirical results,and puts forward corresponding policy recommendations.The results show that:(1)Environmental regulation has a significant impact on the cost of capital,and the lagging environmental regulation has a significant positive impact on the cost of debt capital,that is,the greater the intensity of environmental regulation,the higher the cost of debt capital.However,there is a significant negative correlation between environmental regulation and the cost of equity capital.That is to say,with the increase of environmental regulation intensity,the cost of equity capital has been reduced to a certain extent.(2)There is a significant negative correlation between environmental regulation and investment expenditure of enterprises,that is,the enhancement of environmental regulation intensity has a significant inhibitory effect on investment expenditure of enterprises in heavy pollution industries.(3)The restraining effect of environmental regulation on investment expenditure is not through the intermediary variable of debt capital cost.The cost of debt capital plays a "cover-up effect"between environmental regulation and investment expenditure.That is to say,without controlling the cost of debt capital,the difference of enterprise investment between regions with high environmental regulation and those with low environmental regulation is concealed.Therefore,according to the above empirical research results,the government should formulate reasonable environmental regulation policies,improve compensation mechanism for pollution control and emission reduction,follow-up research and timely adjustment of policy intensity,and suggest that enterprises should assume social responsibility for pollution control and emission reduction,pay attention to the trend of environmental regulation policies and devote themselves to the innovation of production technology. |
