ESG Practices and Firm Productivity in the Belt and Road Initiative Evidence of a Short-Term Trade-off and the Moderating Roles of Cost of Debt and Overseas Revenue

Jiayue Yang ()
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Jiayue Yang: Shanghai International Studies University, School of Russian and Eurasian Studies

A chapter in Proceedings of the 2026 6th International Conference on Enterprise Management and Economic Development (ICEMED 2026), 2026, pp 376-386 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This paper uses A‑share listed firms in China’s Belt and Road sector for 2008-2024 as the sample, applies the widely used Levinsohn-Petrin (LP) method to estimate firms’ Total Factor Productivity (TFP), and empirically examines the potential effect of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance on TFP and its underlying mechanisms. The results indicate that ESG performance among firms along the Belt and Road exerts a statistically significant negative effect on TFP, consistent with the compliance cost hypothesis. Heterogeneity analysis shows that this negative effect is concentrated in non-heavy‑polluting industries. Moderation tests reveal that higher cost of debt and overseas market expansion could mitigate the adverse impact of ESG on TFP. The paper thereby uncovers efficiency losses and external constraints faced by Belt and Road firms during the initial stages of green transformation, providing valuable microlevel evidence relevant to the design of green finance policies and to guiding firms’ high‑quality internationalization.

Keywords: Belt and Road Firms; ESG Performance; Total Factor Productivity; Cost of Debt; Proportion of Overseas Revenue (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:advbcp:978-94-6239-719-4_43

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DOI: 10.2991/978-94-6239-719-4_43

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