Wu Longsheng, Lam Johnny F I, Liu Yinghan
Faculty of Finance, City University of Macau, Macau, 999078, China.
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Macao Polytechnic University, Macau, 999078, China.
Heliyon. 2024 Jul 10;10(14):e34235. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e34235. eCollection 2024 Jul 30.
This study aims to reveal the impact of semi-mandatory non-financial disclosure requirements on corporate ESG performance and its mechanism. Utilizing the "comply or explain" semi-mandatory ESG disclosure requirement implemented by the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) of China in 2016 as a quasi-experiment, and adopting the difference-in-differences identification strategy, this paper finds that semi-mandatory non-financial disclosure requirements can significantly enhance corporate ESG performance. Through mechanism analysis, it is found that semi-mandatory non-financial disclosure requirement promotes firms' ESG performance by suppressing the myopic behavior of corporate management and improving the quality of corporate internal control. Through heterogeneity analysis, it is found that semi-mandatory non-financial disclosure requirements have a greater effect on the ESG performance of firms with high institutional investor attention and non-polluting firms, and a smaller effect on firms with executives with overseas experience.
本研究旨在揭示半强制性非财务披露要求对企业ESG绩效的影响及其作用机制。以中国香港交易及结算所有限公司（港交所）2016年实施的“不遵守就解释”半强制性ESG披露要求为准自然实验，并采用双重差分识别策略，本文发现半强制性非财务披露要求能够显著提升企业ESG绩效。通过机制分析发现，半强制性非财务披露要求通过抑制企业管理层的短视行为和提高企业内部控制质量来促进企业的ESG绩效。通过异质性分析发现，半强制性非财务披露要求对机构投资者关注度高的企业和非污染企业的ESG绩效影响较大，对有海外经历高管的企业影响较小。
