Relationship between Environmental Information Disclosure and Cost of Equity of Listed Companies in China's Marine Industry

Abstract

Li, Y. and Zhang, S., 2019. Relationship between environmental information disclosure and cost of equity of listed companies in China's marine industry. In: Li, L.; Wan, X., and Huang, X. (eds.), Recent Developments in Practices and Research on Coastal Regions: Transportation, Environment and Economy. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 98, pp. 42–45. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.At present, the marine industry has become an important growth driver for China's economic development. This paper empirically studies the impact of environmental information disclosure on the enterprise's cost of equity (COE) by taking China's listed companies of marine industry in 2016–18 as the research objects. The research results show that (1) the quality of environmental information disclosure of listed companies in China's marine industry is significantly negatively correlated with the COE, indicating that improvement in the quality of environmental information disclosure may reduce the COE; (2) compared with nonstate-owned listed companies in the marine industry, the environmental information disclosure of state-owned listed companies plays a more significant role in reducing their COE. On the basis of this, this paper puts forward some suggestions for improving and enhancing the environmental information disclosure of listed companies in China's marine industry. This shall continuously improve the quality of China's marine ecological environment while developing China's marine economy.