Facilitating or inhibiting? The impact of environmental information disclosure on enterprise investment value.

Environmental protection, which is beneficial for the present and the future, has become a global consensus, and environmental information disclosure (EID) is an effective way to realize and fulfill enterprise environmental responsibility. Although some scholars have studied the impact of EID on firms, there is less empirical evidence on the impact of EID on investors. In this study, we examine the impact of EID on enterprise investment value based on signaling theory using a time-varying difference-in-differences model and extract two channels of this effect. The study shows that the implementation of EID helps to enhance the value of enterprise investment. This enhancement will vary according to the location, the industry pollution type, and the nature of the enterprise: EID has a remarkable enhancement effect on the investment value of the eastern region, heavily polluted enterprises, and non-state-owned enterprises. To investigate the channel of EID's effect on enterprise investment value, we use the moderating effect model to analyze and find that enterprises with low tax ratios and small financing constraints can significantly enhance the effect of EID on investment value.