School of Economics and Management, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China.
School of Management, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Dec 4;19(23):16223. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192316223.
Compared with developed countries, emerging economy countries are facing more severe environmental challenges. Therefore, effective disclosure of corporate environmental information is an important concern for emerging economies to cope with environmental issues. There is a growing volume of literature documenting that analyst site visits can urge corporations to provide high-quality financial information to investors. However, whether analyst site visits can also improve the quality of environmental information is still unclear. In the Chinese setting, where environmental information has attracted much attention, we explore the interaction between analyst site visits and environmental information disclosure. With three regression methods of the ordinary least squares model, two-stage least square model, and difference-in-difference model, we establish regressions to verify the relationships between them by using empirical data from 2012 to 2019 in China. The results show that analyst site visits are significantly positively correlated with corporate environmental information disclosure. This positive relation is more pronounced when corporations are in economically developed and highly market-oriented areas, in poor air quality areas, and for corporations with good, reasonable internal governance. In addition, we find that analyst site visits affect the quality of environmental information disclosure through the intermediary effect of media attention. In the robustness test, further evidence also indicates that the interaction between analyst site visits and corporate environmental information disclosure was more significant before the COVID-19 lockdown policy was implemented in Wuhan. Our findings suggest that governments should provide support for analysts to conduct site visits and formulate regulations on mandatory disclosure of environmental information by different regions as soon as possible.
与发达国家相比，新兴经济体面临着更为严峻的环境挑战。因此，企业环境信息的有效披露是新兴经济体应对环境问题的重要关注点。越来越多的文献记录表明，分析师现场调研可以促使企业向投资者提供高质量的财务信息。然而，分析师现场调研是否也能提高环境信息的质量尚不清楚。在中国，环境信息受到了广泛关注，我们探讨了分析师现场调研与环境信息披露之间的相互作用。我们使用了 2012 年至 2019 年中国的实证数据，采用普通最小二乘法模型、两阶段最小二乘法模型和差分模型三种回归方法，建立回归模型来验证它们之间的关系。结果表明，分析师现场调研与企业环境信息披露呈显著正相关。当企业位于经济发达、市场导向程度高、空气质量差的地区，以及内部治理良好、合理的地区时，这种正相关关系更为明显。此外，我们发现分析师现场调研通过媒体关注度的中介效应影响环境信息披露的质量。在稳健性测试中，进一步的证据也表明，在武汉实施 COVID-19 封城政策之前，分析师现场调研与企业环境信息披露之间的相互作用更为显著。我们的研究结果表明，政府应支持分析师进行现场调研，并尽快制定针对不同地区的环境信息强制性披露的规定。
