Green Fiscal Policy and ESG Performance: Evidence from the Energy-Saving and Emission-Reduction Policy in China

Shan Miao, Yandi Tuo, Xi Zhang () and Xiang Hou
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Shan Miao: School of Economics, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing 100048, China
Yandi Tuo: School of Economics, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing 100048, China
Xi Zhang: School of Economics, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing 100048, China
Xiang Hou: School of Economics, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing 100048, China

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 9, 1-19

Abstract: To achieve the goal of sustainable development, China has implemented the energy conservation and emission-reduction policy. So far, there is still little evidence of the impact of the policiy on corporate behaviour. Therefore, this study collects data on Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2017 and applies the staggered difference-in-differences method to analyse the impact of the energy conservation and emission-reduction policy on the environmental, social and governance performance of companies in China. The result shows that the energy conservation and emission-reduction policy reduces environmental, social and governance performance, and this negative effect increases over time. Meanwhile, a further mechanism analysis confirms that the negative impact on environmental, social and governance performance operates through the incentive effect on environmental performance, the crowding-out effect on social performance and the spillover effect on governance performance. Furthermore, the negative effect is heterogeneous across companies and cities. Overall, our results provide empirical evidence for optimising energy conservation and emission-reduction policies in developing countries.

Keywords: energy conservation policy; emission-reduction policy; ESG; staggered difference-in-differences; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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