Research On The Impact Of Environmental Regulation On Environmental Performance Of Listed Enterprises

Since the 18 th CPC National Congress,ecological progress has become an important task for the sustainable development of the Chinese nation.Faced with the severe situation of promoting economic development and paying attention to ecological and environmental protection,the government has continuously strengthened environmental regulation,in order to improve the environmental performance of enterprises and promote sustainable economic and environmental development.As a supply of basic energy and important raw materials,resource-based cities have long made outstanding contributions to the economic and social development of our country,but at the same time,they also cause serious damage to ecological environment.In 2013,The State Council issued the National Plan for Sustainable Development of Resource-Based Cities(2013-2020),which is the first national special plan issued by the State in the field of sustainable development of resource-based cities.It requires enterprises to internalize the cost of ecological environment restoration and governance and take the initiative to assume the responsibility of environmental governance in accordance with the principle of "whoever destroys,whoever controls".Local governments should make overall plans,give active guidance,and strengthen supervision and evaluation.In this paper,environmental regulation in the form of this plan is used to discuss the impact on corporate environmental performance,the moderating effect of corporate environmental expenditure(internal environmental management behavior)and government environmental information disclosure(external government environmental governance behavior)on the relationship between environmental regulation and corporate environmental performance,and the different impacts of environmental regulation on corporate environmental performance under different urban life cycle types.This paper selects 386 A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock exchanges with registered addresses in resource-based cities from 2008 to 2020 as samples for empirical research,distinguishes non-heavy polluting enterprises from heavy polluting enterprises,and uses OLS model to analyze the static impact of environmental regulation on enterprise environmental performance.The difference GMM model is used to analyze the dynamic impact of environmental regulation on enterprise environmental performance,and the moderating effect is used to analyze the impact of enterprise environmental expenditure and government environmental information disclosure on the relationship between environmental regulation and enterprise environmental performance,and the robustness test is conducted.This paper mainly draws the following conclusions:(1)from the perspective of static impact,environmental regulation has a significant role in promoting corporate environmental performance;From the perspective of dynamic impact,for non-heavy polluting enterprises,the improvement of environmental performance in the early stage can effectively promote the improvement of environmental performance in the current period;For heavy polluting enterprises,lagged environmental performance of one period can significantly promote the improvement of current environmental performance,but this effect is no longer significant as time goes by.(2)The addition of corporate environmental expenditure does not have a significant impact on corporate environmental performance under environmental regulation,while the disclosure of government environmental information can effectively affect the relationship between environmental regulation and corporate environmental performance.(3)Further research shows that the ranking of urban life cycle of the impact of environmental regulation on the environmental performance of non-heavy polluting enterprises is regeneration>decline>mature>growth,and the ranking of urban life cycle of the impact of environmental regulation on the environmental performance of heavy polluting enterprises is growth>decline>regeneration>mature.Combining theoretical and empirical results,this paper proposes recommendations from both the corporate and government perspectives.For enterprises,they should ensure the sustainability of environmental protection investment and participate in environmental governance in a more proactive manner.For the government,it is necessary to continue to improve the transmission mechanism of government supervision by public opinion on corporate reputation,and establish a continuous tracking mechanism in environmental information disclosure.