Heterogeneity Of Environmental Regulation, Political Connections And Corporate Environmental Information Disclosure Quality

With the attention of the government and the public’s on environment increasing, and the disclosure of environmental information has gradually become an important channel for stakeholders to understand the environmental performance of corporate. How to standardize and improve the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure has become a major problem that the government needs to solve urgently. Environmental regulation has become one of the key factors that affect the openness of environmental information. Scholars have made abundant achievements on the influence of environmental regulation on the disclosure of environmental information, previous studies only consider the impact of environmental regulation on corporate environmental information disclosure from the single perspective of government, it does not take into account the differences in environmental regulation, and the possible distortion effect of political connection on environmental regulation is also lack of systematic research. Therefore, this paper defines the heterogeneity of environmental regulation from two aspects of environmental regulation strength and environmental regulation tools, empirically test the impact of environmental regulation on corporate environmental information disclosure, and analysis the moderating effects of political connection on the heterogeneity of environmental regulation and their differences.Firstly, based on the institutional theory, legitimacy theory, social responsibility theory, resource dependence theory, rental theory and impression management theory etc., this paper construct the analytical framework of the relationship between heterogeneity of environmental regulation, political connection and the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure. Secondly, based on the evaluation system of the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure, this paper evaluates environmental information disclosure in heavy polluting industries from 2008 to 2014, and defines the heterogeneity of environmental regulation from the intensity and patterns(the administrative command, market incentive and the public participation in environmental regulation).Then, this paper empirically test the impact of different environmental regulation tool on the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure, and analysis the moderating effects of political connection on the heterogeneity of environmental regulation and their differences of effect. Moreover, we investigated the moderating effect of political connection in different property right and different market level. The empirical results shows that:(1)The overall quality of environmental information disclosure in heavy polluting industries from 2008 to 2014 continues to improve, but there are significant differences between industries, in content and in market, selective disclosure of environmental information in listing corporation is significant;(2) The greater the intensity of environmental regulation is, the higher the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure is, and the positive effect of environmental regulation belong to the type of administrative order and public participation in, the effect of market incentive environmental regulation based on sewage charges system is not significant;(3)Executives’ political connection can significantly weaken the positive correlation between the heterogeneity of environmental regulation and the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure. Compared with the market incentive and the public participation in environmental regulation, the weakening effect of the political connection on administrative command environment regulation is more significant. Moreover, this weakening effect of political connection on environmental regulation is significantly related to property right and the level of marketization, this weakening effect in state-owned enterprise and areas of lower market level is more significant. Finally, in order to urge enterprises to strengthen environmental protection and improve the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure, based on our conclusions, we put forward some suggestions like establishing the unitary standards of environmental information disclosure as soon as possible, perfecting the system of corporate environmental information disclosure, implementing differentiated policy of environmental regulation, establishing an orderly market mechanism, introducing the third party to supervise and verificate corporate environmental behavior, innovating the mechanism of public participation and officials’ promotion, cuting off the rent-seeking channels of corporates.This paper expands the research perspective of influencing factors of the quality of environmental information disclosure, enrich the literature about the effect of political connection on the implementation of government policy,and provides powerful evidence to improve the quality of environmental information disclosure and deepen the reform of the administrative law enforcement system.