Green Manufacturing and Corporate Environmental Information Disclosure:Evidence from the Policy Experiment of"Creation of Green Factories"in China
Corporate environmental information disclosure(EID)is an effective way for firms to fulfill their responsibil-ity for environmental protection,an important channel for the government to promote a modern environmental gover-nance system,and an important foundation for the promotion of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality work.However,the notification information of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in 2021 shows that there is a persisting deficit in EID awareness among some Chinese firms,with some even deliberately concealing environmental hazards.To incentiv-ize enterprises to accelerate the green transformation of production methods and improve the quality of EID,the govern-ment has launched a series of measures.Notably,in 2016,the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology initiated the establishment of a green manufacturing system,including the creation of green factories.This policy represents an in-novative approach to voluntary environmental regulation in China,with widespread implementation across provincial-level regions and cities,and has been implemented in many batches.Therefore,in order to judiciously steer enterprises to-wards high-quality EID,can voluntary environmental regulation policies be effective?The efficacy of such policies war-rants investigation,particularly in the absence of a mandatory EID framework.Using this unique Chinese policy experiment,this paper explores in depth the effects and mechanisms of the creation of green factories on the quality of corporate EID.The paper finds that the creation of green factories significantly im-proves the quality of corporate EID.The mechanism analysis shows that the creation of green factories works mainly through the enterprises'own green transformation measures and pressure from the increased attention of green investors and site visits by institutional investors.Further analysis shows that higher public environmental awareness and stricter lo-cal government environmental regulations can further strengthen the impact of the creation of green factories.The eco-nomic consequence analysis shows that the improved quality of EID resulting from the creation of green factories pro-motes corporate R&D,green innovation,ESG performance,and the transformation of supply chain enterprises to greener products,as well as leads to pollution and emission reduction at the regional level to improve environmental quality.The marginal contributions of this paper are reflected in the following several aspects.First,we have refined the ownership network of green factories by combining the data of industrial and commercial enterprise registration to con-struct a unique set of research data.Then,we investigate the link between the creation of green factories and the quality of corporate EID,which reveals that corporate green factories creation under the construction of a green manufacturing system can significantly improve the level of corporate EID,complements the research on the important practical signifi-cance of green production and green transformation,and enriches the literature on the factors influencing the quality of corporate EID.Second,from the perspective of novel production methods in green manufacturing,this paper not only assesses the micro-effects of green manufacturing but also extends the research paradigm of the environmental effects of green manu-facturing.It also expands on related studies concerning the economic consequences of corporate green transitions,provid-ing empirical evidence for the effectiveness assessment of green manufacturing system policies.It offers a new perspec-tive on the value of voluntary environmental regulation policies in developing countries.Third,we verify the environmental spillover effects of the creation of green factories on supply chain enterprises and the regions where green factories are located,as well as the significant moderating effects of public environmental aware-ness and local government environmental regulation efforts,which is important for further strengthening local govern-ment environmental governance and enhancing public participation in environmental protection,and provides direct evi-dence of the long-term benefits of incentivizing corporate EID and social responsibility fulfillment.Lastly,the unique research perspectives and conclusions of this paper also inspire solving the self-interested orienta-tion and speculative behaviors of firms in the process of EID,provide insights into the establishment of a differentiated EID framework and a scientific disclosure regulatory system,which can truly create a market environment in which"good money drives out bad",as well as offer inspiration for the formulation and refinement of policies for incentivizing green manufacturing and constructing a modern environmental governance system.
Green ManufacturingEnvironmental Information DisclosureVoluntary Environmental Regulatory PolicyGreen Factory
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