The impact of air pollution on corporate environmental information disclosure–Evidence from heavy pollution industries in China

Abstract

This paper studies the relationship between air pollution and the quality of environmental information disclosure taking the A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2014 to 2020 as sample. The study found that: firstly, air pollution will reduce the quality of enterprise environmental information disclosure. The main reason is that senior executives living in air pollution areas are more likely to have negative emotions, and the negative emotions of senior executives will make them have a negative attitude towards environmental information disclosure, thus reducing the quality of environmental information disclosure of enterprises. Second, the nature of state-owned enterprises positively regulates the negative correlation between air pollution and enterprise environmental information disclosure, while senior executive shareholding weakens the relationship between air pollution and environmental information disclosure. Further analysis found that: first, air pollution reduces the level of non-monetary and monetary environmental information disclosure. The research provides empirical evidence that air quality changes affect micro-business behavior.