Abstract
Corporate environmental responsibility (CER) is an important component of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) report, and an important carrier for enterprises to disclose environmental protection information. Based on the corporate micro data, this paper evaluates the effect of a mandatory CSR disclosure policy on the fulfillment of corporate environmental responsibility by adopting the difference-in-differences model (DID) with the release of a mandatory disclosure policy of China in 2008 as a quasi-natural experiment. The study draws the following conclusions: First, a mandatory CSR disclosure policy can promote the fulfillment of CER. Second, after the implementation of a mandatory CSR disclosure policy, enterprises can improve their CER level through two channels: improving the quality of environmental management disclosure and increasing the number of patents. Third, the heterogeneity of the impacts of mandatory CSR disclosure on CER is reflected in three aspects: different CER levels, different corporate scales and a different property rights structure. In terms of the CER level, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the CER level and mandatory CSR disclosure effect. In terms of the corporate scale, mandatory disclosure of CSR plays a greater role in large-scale enterprises. In terms of the structure of property rights, mandatory CSR disclosure has a greater effect on non-state-owned enterprises.
Highlights
Corporate environmental responsibility (CER) is an important component of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) report and an important carrier for enterprises to disclose environment related behavior information
CERit =∝ + βTreatt × PLi + ∑ j=1 γ j X jit + λi + vt + ε ikt where CERit is the environmental responsibility rating of company i in year t; Treatt is the dummy variable of policy implementation, indicating whether the year t is the year of policy implementation or later, if yes it is 1, otherwise it is 0; PLi is a grouping dummy variable, indicating whether the enterprise i is the object of a mandatory disclosure policy, if yes it is 1, otherwise it is 0; Treatt × PLi is the interaction term between the policy implementation dummy variable and the grouping dummy variable; β is the coefficient that this paper focuses on
The implementation date of the mandatory CSR disclosure policy in 2008 is taken as the policy implementation node, and the enterprises that are forced to disclose are taken as the treated group, while those that voluntarily disclose CSR are taken as the control group
Summary
Corporate environmental responsibility (CER) is an important component of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) report and an important carrier for enterprises to disclose environment related behavior information. Before 2013, Malaysia required the disclosure of corporate environmental information in its annual reports so as to disclose CER and promote “Green Malaysia” [10]. India’s company law of 2013 stipulates that in CSR disclosure, enterprises need to disclose environment and other relevant information in the audited annual report [11]. From the analysis of corporate behavior characteristics, mandatory CSR disclosure improves the relevant management level and technical level of enterprises, promotes enterprises to fulfill CER.
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