The Impact Of Institutional Investors’ Shareholding On Corporate Carbon Emissions

In recent years,the climate problem has become increasingly prominent.Greenhouse gas emissions pose a serious threat to the human environment and economic development.Based on this,China has set a dual target for carbon emissions.Reducing carbon emissions in the context of healthy economic development is a major challenge for China.At present,research on the determinants of carbon dioxide emissions has produced a great deal of results,while research on corporate behavior to reduce carbon dioxide emissions is growing rapidly.As the main body of the market and the main producer of greenhouse gases,enterprises bear the important responsibility of carbon emission reduction.Ways to encourage companies to reduce their carbon emissions should be explored.On the other hand,with the development and maturity of the market,many scholars have realized that under the market economy,the capital market can become an effective place and means to promote the green development of enterprises.At the same time,through public policy,institutional investors have grown rapidly and their influence has increased.The advantage of institutional investors is an important resource support to promote enterprises to reduce carbon emissions,which may have a positive impact on enterprises’ carbon emissions reduction.So is this positive effect real?Will institutional investors actively take actions to influence the enterprises’ carbon emissions?In order to better understand the above issues,this paper selects A-share companies over the period 2008 to 2021 for empirical analysis and research conclusions.The research conclusions are as follows:(1)The shareholding ratio of institutional investors is significantly negatively correlated with the carbon emission level of enterprises,and institutional investors’ shareholding can promote the carbon emission reduction of enterprises,which has passed the robustness test;(2)Financing constraints is an important mechanism for institutional investors to influence the carbon emissions of enterprises.Institutional investors’ shareholding can promote enterprises to reduce carbon emissions by easing the financing constraints of enterprises;(3)The agency problem is another important mechanism for institutional investors to influence the carbon emissions of enterprises.Institutional investors’ shareholding can promote enterprises to reduce carbon emissions by alleviating the agency problem;(4)Compared with tradable institutional investors,stable institutional investors have more obvious inhibition effect on corporate carbon emissions.From the perspective of institutional investors,this study examines whether institutional investor engagement can affect the carbon emissions of enterprises,expands the research on the impact of institutional investors on corporate behavior and enriches the research on the factors influencing corporate carbon emissions.In addition,the conclusions of this paper can help us from a micro perspective,promote enterprises to pay more attention to carbon emissions,improve the long-term value of enterprises,and promote institutional investors to think more rationally.It has important policy implications for improving the capital market governance mechanism,strengthening the protection of institutional investors,and optimizing the structure of investors.And it also helps us achieve the goal of "double carbon" in China.