Environmental regulation and financial asset allocation for heavy polluting enterprises:prevention or pursuit of profit
With the data of A-share listed companies in the heavy polluting industry from 2007 to 2021,this paper utilizes a quasi-natural experiment of the difference-in-difference model and the Environmental Protection Tax Law of the People's Republic of China,analyzing the impact of environmental regulation on the financial asset allocation of heavy polluting firms.The results show that the environmental regulations significantly increase the level of financial asset allocation for heavy polluting enterprises.The enterprises increase the short-term financial assets mainly out of the motive of"precautionary savings"for prevention,rather than out of the motive of"investment substitution"for increasing the long-term financial assets to seek profit.The mechanism analysis reveals that the perceived internal and external financial pressures caused by financing constraints and environmental protection investments are important reasons for heavy polluting enterprises to increase their financial asset allocations as"precautionary savings",and the informal financing channels provide the liquidity provisions.The level of financial asset allocation among the non-state-owned enterprises and small-scale enterprises is more sensitive to environmental regulations,supporting the"precautionary savings"motive of corporate financial asset allocation.This paper provides the policy references for the effective implementation of environmental regulation,the effective prevention of financial risks of heavy polluting enterprises,and the avoidance of financial separation from the real economy.
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
