The effectiveness of China's environmental information disclosure at the corporate level: Empirical evidence from a quasi-natural experiment

Using The Measures of National Key Monitoring Enterprises for Self-monitoring and Information Disclosure (Trial) issued in 2014 as a quasi-natural experiment, this study has identified the effect of China's environmental information disclosure (EID) on economic performance at the corporate level by employing the DID model including the parallel trend hypothesis test, the placebo test, and the PSM-DID method. The results show that the effect of EID on national key monitoring enterprises’ economic performance is significantly negative in the short-term but significantly positive in the long-term. Moreover, the heterogeneity of ownership structure is supported in this study, that is, the promotion effect of EID on economic performance for state-owned enterprises is weaker than the non-state-owned enterprises. Furthermore, the heterogeneity of industry attribute is also established in this study, that is, the effect of EID on economic performance for chemical enterprises is the greatest, followed by other enterprises, and the effect of it on economic performance for non-ferrous metal enterprises is the smallest. Hence, it is necessary and important to promote classified supervision in the implementation of EID. Therefore, this study can shed light for the academics and policymakers seeking to improve EID policies.