Research On Environmental Information Disclosure, Debt Default Risk And Corporate Debt Financing Cos

At present,our country is in the transition period of development mode and construction of green economic structure.The environmental problems have become the public issues that are strongly concerned by the society from all walks of life.In this regard,the Party’s 20 National Congress report put forward to promote green development,promote the concept of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.As micro subjects in the market economy,enterprises will produce a lot of pollutants and consume a lot of energy in the process of production and operation.Therefore,the environmental performance of enterprises has become the focus of investors.According to the level of environmental information disclosed by enterprises,investors can reasonably estimate the environmental risks faced by enterprises,so as to determine the possibility of corporate debt default and thus determine the expectation of investment return.Based on this practical background,this paper explores the impact of environmental information disclosure on corporate debt financing costs and the role of debt default risk in both,so as to provide theoretical basis for Chinese enterprises to reasonably use environmental information disclosure to reduce debt financing costs.Using a combination of empirical research and individual cases,this paper selects 2017-2021 data of listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share heavily polluting industries as research samples,constructs basic regression model and intermediary effect model,and uses Stata17.0 software to carry out empirical research.The empirical results show that there is a significant negative correlation between environmental information disclosure and corporate debt financing costs,and debt default risk plays a significant intermediary role in the relationship between the two.In the further analysis,subsample regression and Fischer test are conducted according to the property rights of enterprises and regional differences,the results show that the impact of environmental information disclosure on debt financing cost is more significant in non-state-owned enterprises and the eastern region.In the robustness test,the robustness of the conclusion above is verified by replacing the explained variable,processing the explanatory variable with a delay of one stage,and re-testing the mediation effect.In addition,this paper takes Zuoli Pharmaceutical as a typical case,introduces its environmental information disclosure in detail,and finds that there are some problems in its environmental information disclosure,such as scattered content,lack of comprehensive,lack of quantitative analysis and an overall low level of disclosure.Then,the paper discusses the effect of environmental information disclosure on reducing debt financing cost of Zuoli Pharmaceutical,and finds that environmental information reduces debt financing cost mainly by reducing debt default risk,which further verifies the accuracy of empirical results.Based on the research conclusions,this paper puts forward four specific suggestions from the perspectives of the government,media,enterprises and investors in order to improve the level of environmental information disclosure of enterprises,reduce the cost of debt financing,and realize the joint development of economic and environmental benefits.