Impact of Carbon Emission Trading System Participation and Level of Internal Control on Quality of Carbon Emission Disclosures: Insights from Chinese State-Owned Electricity Companies

PurposeAs more companies choose to disclose corporate social responsibility (CSR) information, it is important to gain an understanding of the quality of disclosures and factors that influence quality. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of culture as a determinant of the quality of voluntary carbon emission disclosures.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses regression analysis to test the influence of culture on the quality of carbon disclosures. The sample of this study comes from companies who voluntarily report to the carbon disclosure project. The authors operationalize the quality of disclosure using the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index. The authors operationalize cultural values using both Hofstede’s metrics (Hofstede, 1980) and Project GLOBE (House et al., 2004).FindingsThis study predicts and finds a negative relationship between quality of disclosure and high individualism scores. This study also finds that the quality of disclosure is lower for companies located in countries with high power distance scores. The authors find that the quality of disclosure is higher for companies located in countries with gender/assertiveness scores that indicate a higher value on the environment than on the importance of economic growth. While quality is marginally related to uncertainty avoidance using Hofstede's measure, quality is not related to uncertainty avoidance using the Project GLOBE metric. The authors did not find a hypothesized negative significant relationship between quality and long-term orientation.Practical implicationsQuality is a measure of importance to users and regulators of disclosures.Social implicationsNational culture is an important determinant of CSR disclosure quality.Originality/valueThis study extends the previous research by using a metric for quality based on an independent evaluation of disclosures and by the role of culture in a multi-country study.

The article is devoted to the study of the activity of the People's Republic of China (China) in the world market. The purpose of this study is to study the international interaction of Chinese state-owned oil companies and identify the specifics of their behavior strategy in the Kazakhstan market. The subject of the research is the strategy of internationalization; the subject of the research is the Chinese state oil companies. As a methodology for this study, comparative analysis, the method of analysis and synthesis of information about the object of research, methods of analysis of statistical and expert data are used. Based on the research, the author concludes that expansion is used. Chinese state-owned oil companies strive to develop international cooperation, primarily based on historically established partnerships. The internationalization strategy prevailing in Chinese companies has its own characteristics depending on the partner country. Over twenty years, Chinese companies have confidently consolidated their positions in the oil and gas industry of Kazakhstan thanks to initial investments in the assets of Kazakhstani companies, in joint projects to develop new and modernize old fields, and to build new plants.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent and quality of voluntary intellectual capital disclosures by information technology companies of China and India.Research Design/Methodology: The research method adopted for this study is content analysis. The research is limited to the intellectual capital information disclosed in companies’ annual report. The sample for this research is based on 20 information technology (IT) companies listed by market captalisation listed on Shenzhen or Shanghai stock exchange market, and the largest 20 companies listed on Indian stock market.Findings: Indian IT companies tends to perform better than Chinese IT companies in extent and quality of disclosures. The extent of disclosure of both countries is at a relatively high level. The most frequently reported disclosure category in India is external capital, while the least one is human capital. In China, external capital is the most frequently disclosed category, while the internal capital is the least one.Limitations/Implications: The sample size of the study is relatively small. Future research can expand on the sample size to get an overview of the intellectual capital disclosure, and conduct a longitudinal study to capture the trend of reporting practices.Originality: Previous studies of intellectual capital (IC) disclosure have covered little on the relationship between market capitalization and quality of disclosure and cross-country disclosure on IC. This research tends to extend the literature on intellectual capital disclosure.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent and quality of voluntary intellectual disclosures by information technology (IT) companies of China and India. Design/methodology/approach – The research method adopted for this study is content analysis. The research is limited to the intellectual capital information disclosed in companies’ annual report. The sample for this research is based on 20 IT companies listed by market capitalization listed on Shenzhen or Shanghai stock exchange market, and the largest 20 companies listed on Indian stock market. Findings – Indian IT companies tends to perform better than Chinese IT companies in extent and quality of disclosures. The extent of disclosure of both countries is at a relatively high level. The most frequently reported disclosure category in India is external capital, while the least one is human capital. In China, external capital is the most frequently disclosed category, while the internal capital is the least one. Research limitations/implications – The sample size of the study is relatively small. Future research can expand on the sample size to get an overview of the intellectual capital disclosure, and conduct a longitudinal study to capture the trend of reporting practices. Practical implications – The findings of this study have implications for policy makers and standard setters for rethinking of inclusion of intellectual capital disclosure in annual reports as compulsory items. This will not only add tot he quality of information but various stakeholders will be able to make an assessment of the values of a firm. Originality/value – Previous studies of intellectual capital (IC) disclosure have covered little on the relationship between market capitalization and quality of disclosure and cross-country disclosure on IC. This research tends to extend the literature on IC disclosure.

Job performance of employees has been a major area of study in human resources due to its important implications for organizational outcomes. This study examines the impact of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, ethical behavior, and emotional intelligence on the job performance of 236 employees in a Chinese state-owned steel company. The Chinese steel industry is the largest in the world and accounts for more than onethird of the world’s steel production. Regression results indicate that job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and emotional intelligence had a significant positive impact on job performance. Social desirability bias also impacted employees’ performance significantly. Self-reported ethical behavior and control variables (age, gender, education, and type of job) had no significant impact on job performance of the subjects. The study discusses how firms can use various human resource strategies to influence antecedents of job performance of Chinese employees.

It has been years since the Paris Agreement and most states are still struggling with their goals to reduce the carbon emission. Many ways and measures are taken but few show effectiveness. Because the industrial development and daily lives of the common people count on the activities that emit much carbon dioxide. Most governments are reluctant to restrict the carbon emission of local industry. Whats more, in the international level, the developed countries refused to take all reduction responsibilities based on their historical emission volume. While the developing ones are eager to pursue more progress in industry. To overcome such difficulty, the market-orientation carbon emission regulations are created to tackle with the challenges that the normal order-control regulations cannot deal with. In contrast to the carbon tax that is more direct and obvious, the carbon emission trade system is favored by both China and US. The system of carbon emission trade system is much younger and less experienced than it is in the US. The comparative study on the carbon emission trade system needs to be done to find more possible solutions to improve the current carbon emission trading system of China. In the paper, main research method is the comparative research and system analysis. In conclusion, the carbon emission trade system of China is relatively immature, lacking the legal support and clear regulations. The carbon emission trade system in China needs stronger laws to support, achieving more active flexible form of trading. The central and local governments should also provide the proper policies like open auction and third-party supervision.

The carbon emissions trading system (CETS) is a helpful policy instrument for separating carbon emissions from economic expansion, and it significantly impacts energy efficiency (EE). This study uses 30 Chinese provinces from 2007 to 2020 as its research samples, and classifies energy efficiency into single-factor energy efficiency (SFE) and total-factor energy efficiency (TFE), using the difference-in-differences model to examine the effect and mechanism of the CETS on EE. As an additional tool to assess the efficacy of the CETS, the corresponding evolution of the rebound effect of energy-related carbon emissions (RECE) is also calculated. This study shows that the CETS can significantly improve EE in China's pilot provinces. The influence mechanism indicates that the effect of the CETS on EE is influenced by the level of government governance, green innovation, and industrial structure optimization. Further study finds that after the CETS was carried out, the RECE in pilot provinces was higher than that in non-pilot provinces, and 31.4% of carbon emissions reduced by EE improvement rebounded. Therefore, the CETS has yet to realize its full carbon reduction potential. The study offers specific policy proposals for the enhancement of China's CETS in light of the aforementioned findings.

This study reveals the inconsistencies between the negative externalities of carbon emissions and the recognition condition of accounting statements. Hence, the study identifies that heavily polluting enterprises in China have severe off-balance sheet carbon reduction risks before implementing the carbon emission trading system (CETS). Through the staggered difference-in-difference (DID) model and the propensity score matching-DID model, the impact of CETS on reducing the risk of stock price crashes is examined using data from China’s A-share heavily polluting listed companies from 2007 to 2019. The results of this study are as follows: (1) CETS can significantly reduce the risk of stock price crashes for heavily polluting companies in the pilot areas. Specifically, CETS reduces the skewness (negative conditional skewness) and down-to-up volatility of the firm-specific weekly returns by 8.7% and 7.6%, respectively. (2) Heterogeneity analysis further shows that the impacts of CETS on the risk of stock price crashes are more significant for heavily polluting enterprises with the bear market condition, short-sighted management, and intensive air pollution. (3) Mechanism tests show that CETS can reduce analysts’ coverage of heavy polluters, reducing the risk of stock price crashes. This study reveals the role of CETS from the stock price crash risk perspective and helps to clarify the relationship between climatic risk and corporate financial risk.

To achieve the goal of stabilizing carbon dioxide at acceptable levels under the Paris agreement, it is essential to control carbon emissions by implementing regulatory interventions. Carbon tax and emission trading system (ETS) are two effective tools to regulate carbon emissions. Various studies have investigated both methods, yet few have considered the impact of these two policies on the electricity market and social welfare. The purpose of this paper is to fill in the gap, namely to quantify the influence of the carbon tax and ETS using the baseline-and-credit method on the electricity market. In addition, an optimal hybrid policy that combines both carbon tax and ETS is developed. Our case studies demonstrate that carbon tax, ETS, and the hybrid carbon policy can achieve the goal of reducing carbon emission and increasing social welfare. For hybrid policy, the carbon tax rate and the emission marginal cost of allowance in ETS are optimized properly to maximize social welfare.

The role of China's carbon emission trading system in economic decarbonization: Evidence from Chinese prefecture-level cities

With China’s dual carbon goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, the carbon emission trading system will play a crucial role. In addition, agriculture, which is closely linked to carbon emissions, is a foundational industry in China. It is worth paying attention to how it responds to carbon emission trading policies. This study uses data from agricultural listed enterprises from 2009 to 2022, and employs the Difference-in-Differences (DID) method and the intermediary effect model. The evidence suggests that the the carbon emission trading system will significantly improve the the ESG evaluation of agricultural enterprises. Furthermore, green management innovation, green total factor productivity, and CSR information disclosure quality of enterprises will act as intermediaries. The study calls for the government to accelerate the establishment of a national carbon trading market, improve reward and penalty systems, and evaluation frameworks for green innovation in agricultural enterprises. It also emphasizes the need to strengthen pre-subsidies for small-scale enterprises, encourage environmental literacy training for management personnel in agricultural enterprises, intensify green innovation efforts, and establish relevant department assessments of corporate social responsibility.

As the highest carbon emission country in the world, it is particularly important to investigate the implementation effect of China’s carbon emission trading (CET) system. Because of the complexity to figure out the counterfactual effect when a single unit is treated, the counterfactual and causal effects of the CET system on the carbon emissions are seldom identified. In order to overcome the weakness that counterfactual effect is difficult to be verified and policy persistence is difficult to be estimated, Synthetic Control Method (SCM) and Regression Discontinuity (RD) are combined to better understand and evaluate the impact of CET system in China. Through the analysis, it is found that CET system is effective in China, but the effect is driven by economic development, energy consumption, FDI and other variables. Because of the differences in economic, geographical, technological and environmental conditions in various areas, each Chinese provincial government should formulate a targeted policy according to local conditions, ensuring an economic and environmentally sustainable growth in the future.

Due to the increasing and rapid economic and population growth over the past years, urban areas have become the focus of carbon-emission-reduction policies. Meanwhile, they are also continuously subjected to environmental pressure from urban development. Therefore, this study used the STIRPAT model to develop an index to capture the environmental pressure from urban development based on a panel dataset of 284 prefecture cities from 2006 to 2022 in mainland China. Subsequently, a fixed effect model and a quantile regression model were used to test the impact of the environmental pressure from urban development on the level of urban carbon emissions. The results showed a notable relationship between the environmental pressure from urban development and the level of urban carbon emissions. More specifically, for every one-unit increase in the index, the urban carbon emission level increased by 1.4%. This result was found stable after a series of robustness tests. Furthermore, quantile regression showed that before the 50th percentile, the environmental pressure from urban development had a positive impact on the level of urban carbon emissions, whereas after the 50th percentile, it had a negative impact. Finally, heterogeneity analysis indicated that, compared to in large cities, the positive impact of the environmental pressure from urban development on urban carbon emission levels was more significant in small-sized, medium-sized, and megacities. Therefore, it is recommended to continuously optimize the context for business and trading and promote the industrial structure. Carbon emission reduction targets should be differentiated based on development levels of cities. While implementing carbon emission reduction measures in urban areas, population and other conditions should be taken into account.

The purpose of this study is to compare the differences in disclosure quality between Chinese and American companies listed in the United States. Despite the fact that Chinese companies listed on a U.S. stock exchange are required to adhere to the same disclosure and financial reporting regulations as U.S. companies listed on that exchange, variations between the two persist. Consequently, this study seeks to explore and compare the specific disparities in disclosure quality between Chinese companies listed in the U.S. and American companies. The "use of proceeds" section of the initial IPO prospectus for both American and Chinese companies will be employed to assess the specificity of disclosure quality. Statistical data sampling and analysis will be conducted to compare their specificity of disclosure. Finally, a T-test will be employed to compare and contrast the results. Based on our research findings, it can be concluded that Chinese companies listed in the U.S. exhibit a significantly higher overall quality of information disclosure compared to domestically listed U.S. companies.

Purpose This study revisits the causal effect of a firm’s disclosure quality on the cost of debt in an emerging market, Vietnam, where the regulations regarding corporate disclosure have been upgraded. Design/methodology/approach We employ least squares dummy variable (LSDV) and difference-in-difference (DiD) estimation with a regulation shock that forces firms to improve their disclosure quality. Findings High disclosure quality firms have lower cost of debt. In addition, due to the regulation change, firms with poor disclosure quality can save around 1% in their cost of debt as their disclosure quality improves. Moreover, better disclosure quality reduces the cost of debt when firms confront heightened uncertainty or tight monetary policy. Practical implications The finding implies that governmental regulations aimed at enhancing information transparency in emerging markets remain effective. Firms that improve their disclosure quality can experience a reduced cost of debt. The study highlights the economic benefits of corporate disclosures and provides insights for policymakers in emerging markets to enhance corporate disclosure standards. Originality/value By using the regulation change as an exogenous shock to achieve more precise identification, the paper addresses the limitations of previous studies regarding the endogeneity problem inherent in the relationship between corporate disclosure and market outcomes. Additionally, with a measure of timely disclosure based on an exogenous event, this paper provides reliable evidence on how the timeliness of disclosure affects the cost of debt. Furthermore, while several studies have investigated the relationship between disclosure quality and the cost of debt in developed markets, this research focuses on a bank-based market where loans are more common than bond issuances in corporate financing and where collateral plays a key role in securing loans.