환경지출을 자발적으로 공시하는 기업의 특성 및 기업가치 관련성에 관한 연구

Abstract

[Purpose] This study investigates factors affecting the voluntary disclosure of environmental expenditures in Korea. For this purpose, we select firms listed on the KOSPI 200 from 2011 to 2021, excluding financial firms.
 [Methodology] We consider whether a firm manages environmental performance, international influences, and internal corporate governance as determinants influencing voluntary environmental expenditure disclosure and conduct logistic regression analyses.
 [Findings] First, firms that set a target level for pollutant emissions and firms that are assigned good ratings regarding environmental performance from KCGS are more likely to disclose environmental expenditures voluntarily. Second, strong international influences, proxied by a high export ratio and foreign ownership, are positively associated with the voluntary disclosure of environmental expenditures. Third, good internal governance, proxied by good governance ratings assigned by KCGS and the ratio of outside directors to total directors, is positively associated with the likelihood of firms’ voluntarily disclosing environmental expenditures. Lastly, we find that voluntary disclosure of environmental expenditures has a positive effect on firm value, while the amount of environmental expenditures itself shows statistically insignificant effects on firm value.
 [Implications] This study contributes to the literature by investigating factors that determine voluntary disclosure of environmental issues in Korea. Moreover, by showing the positive value implications of such disclosures, we encourage managers to disclose environmental issues voluntarily.