Research On The Impact Of Environmental Information Disclosure On The High-Quality Development Of Heavy Polluting Enterprises

At present,China’s economy has entered a stage of high-quality development.The report of the 20 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China points out that high-quality development is the primary task of comprehensively building a modern socialist country.As an important part in the market economy,high-quality development of enterprises is very important for promoting high-quality development of China’s economy.Among them,as an important part of industrial enterprises,heavy polluting enterprises are the main contributors to energy consumption and pollution emissions,and they are also the "main force" in pollution control.How to improve its total factor productivity and achieve high-quality development of enterprises is vital for China’s environmental protection and macroeconomic development.As a public participation type of environmental regulation,environmental information disclosure,while reducing the information asymmetry between enterprises and the public,can guarantee the public’s right to supervise the environmental governance of enterprises and prompt heavy polluting enterprises to assume environmental responsibility.Disclosure of Environmental information is an effective means of pollution control,as well as a manifestation of the social conscience of heavy polluting enterprises,which has a certain impact on the high-quality development of enterprises.Therefore,in the context of corporate environmental governance and high-quality development,exploring the impact and mechanism of environmental information disclosure on the high-quality development of heavy polluting enterprises is of great significance to confirm the value of environmental information disclosure,and coordinate the promotion of environmental governance and high-quality development of heavy polluting enterprises.In this context,this article takes listed companies in the heavy polluting industry of China’s Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares from 2012 to 2021 as the research object.On the basis of collecting environmental information from 493 listed companies,it uses the content analysis method to construct an evaluation system of environmental information disclosure indicators,quantitatively evaluates the level of environmental information disclosure of each company,and uses the LP method to measure the total factor productivity to measure the level of high-quality development of enterprises;Then,empirically testing the impact of environmental information disclosure on the high-quality development of heavy polluting enterprises using a fixed effects model,as well as the impact of different types of environmental information on the high-quality development of heavy polluting enterprises.At the same time,two variables,enterprise innovation and government subsidies,were further introduced to test the impact mechanism of environmental information disclosure on the high-quality development of heavy polluting enterprises.Finally,from the three heterogeneous perspectives of enterprise ownership,enterprise life cycle and enterprise information environment,this paper explores whether environmental information disclosure has a heterogeneous impact on the high-quality development of heavy polluting enterprises.The empirical results show that: Firstly,during the sample period,the level of environmental information disclosure and high-quality development of heavy polluting enterprises generally show an increasing trend,with almost the same trend of change,but the level of high-quality development of enterprises have increased more slowly.The comparison of different dimensions reveals that compared to non-state enterprises,the level of environmental information disclosure and high-quality development of state-owned enterprises are both higher,but the growth rate is relatively slow;compared to enterprises in decline,the level of environmental information disclosure and high-quality development of enterprises in the growth and mature stages are both higher and the growth rate is also faster;compared to enterprises with poor information environment,the level of environmental information disclosure and high-quality development of enterprises with better information environment and the growth rate of environmental information disclosure and high-quality development is higher for enterprises with a better information environment.Secondly,environmental information disclosure can significantly promote the high-quality development of heavy polluting enterprises;and both positive and negative information disclosure contribute to the high-quality development of heavy polluting enterprises.Thirdly,the results of the functional mechanism test indicate that,on the one hand,disclosing more detailed environmental information can improve the investment of enterprise research and development funds,promote innovation of enterprise,and thereby promote high-quality development of heavy polluting enterprises;On the other hand,enterprises can obtain more government subsidies by disclosing more detailed environmental information,thereby promoting high-quality development of heavy polluting enterprises.Fourthly,the results of heterogeneity analysis show that environmental information disclosure has a stronger role in promoting the high-quality development of state-owned enterprises from the perspective of different ownership properties.From the perspective of different life cycles,environmental information disclosure has a stronger impact on the high-quality development of heavy polluting enterprises in the growth and mature stages,but the impact on the high-quality development of enterprises in the decline period is not significant.From the perspective of different information environments,when the information environment is better,the impact of environmental information disclosure on the high-quality development of heavy polluting enterprises is more significant.According to the above conclusions,corresponding suggestions are put forward:For government departments,they should rely on the newly issued "Management Measures for Legal Disclosure of Enterprise Environmental Information" to continuously improve environmental information disclosure laws and regulations;they should establish a long-term mechanism for promoting environmental information disclosure through cross departmental linkage;while urging enterprises to fulfill their environmental information disclosure responsibilities,they should give certain subsidies and support to enterprises with high levels of environmental information disclosure.For enterprises,they should firmly establish the awareness of environmental protection and actively improve the level of environmental information disclosure;they should establish a dedicated environmental management department to improve information disclosure;they should strengthen communication with information focus subjects and give full play to the professional advantages and reputation incentives of securities analysts to improve the information environment.Figure [4] Table [21] Reference [116]...