Does Hazy Weather Influence Earnings Management of Heavy-Polluting Enterprises? A Chinese Empirical Study from the Perspective of Negative Social Concerns

Xiaodong Zhu, Rongrong Gu, Bingbing Wu and Shunsuke Managi
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Xiaodong Zhu: School of Management Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Rongrong Gu: School of Management Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Bingbing Wu: School of Management Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 12, 1-15

Abstract: During the 2014 APEC Conference, there was a long presence of blue sky (APEC Blue) after a long-time occurrence of hazy weather in Beijing, China, which prompted the public’s attention to heavy-polluting enterprises to reach a new peak. Will the public’s negative concern about the incident will affect the operation of heavy-polluting enterprises? In this paper, we analyzed the influence of the haze-related exogenous events before and after the “APEC Blue” on earnings management of heavy-polluting enterprises from a new perspective of negative social attention. We carry out research from three perspectives for further research, which involve the growth in the demand for accounting information disclosure, the increase of consumers’ low-carbon consciousness and differences in the amount of attention on enterprises with different properties and scales. Results indicate that heavy-polluting enterprises have stronger preference for downward earnings management, especially in those enterprises that are large in scale, non-state owned, or have a direct relationship with consumers.

Keywords: hazy weather; heavy-polluting enterprises; earnings management; difference-in-difference model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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