How does digital finance influence corporate greenwashing behavior?

Lei Yin and Yuanyuan Yang

International Review of Economics & Finance, 2024, vol. 93, issue PB, 359-373

Abstract: This paper examines the effects of digital finance and corporate greenwashing as well as the underlying mechanisms using panel data from China's A-share, listed companies between 2012 and 2021. By employing panel regression and mediation effect models, we demonstrate that digital finance considerably inhibits corporate greenwashing. This conclusion remains robust after a series of tests, including replacing the core explanatory variables, lagging digital finance by one period, using alternative dependent variables, and applying the instrumental variables method. More importantly, we find that digital finance curbs corporate greenwashing by alleviating financing constraints and improving informational transparency. In addition, we reveal that digital finance has heterogeneous effects on corporate greenwashing. The inhibitory effect of digital finance on corporate greenwashing is more pronounced for high-polluting industries, under the conditions of strict environmental regulations, and in China's central and western regions.

Keywords: Digital finance; Greenwashing; Financing constraints; Information transparency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G21 G34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056024003125
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reveco:v:93:y:2024:i:pb:p:359-373

DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2024.05.014

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Economics & Finance is currently edited by H. Beladi and C. Chen

More articles in International Review of Economics & Finance from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().