The Effects of Ownership and Capital Structure on Environmental Information Disclosure: Empirical Evidence from Chinese Listed Electric Firms

摘要

Based on 2006 sustainability reporting guidelines and environmental information disclosure measurement issued by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), this paper proposes a quantitative estimation of ownership structure, capital structure and environmental information disclosure (EID) for 25 listed firms in Chinese electric industry, presents the empirical evidence of the effects of ownership and capital structure on environmental information disclosure. Our empirical results show that state legal-person ownership, non-state ownership, ownership concentration, financial leverage, long-term debts and short-term debts have significantly positive impacts on environmental information disclosure. Compared with listed electric firms who own higher non-state ownership, listed firms owned higher state ownership tend to disclose more environmental information in an active and voluntary behavior. Listed firms with an increase of ownership concentration and financial leverage voluntarily disclose more environmental information, which is helpful for stakeholders to reducing environmental and financial risk. Compared with short-term debt, long-term debt have a significant effect on EID, listed firms owned greater long-term debts tend to disclose more environmental information, it is helpful for creditors to decreasing financial and environmental risks. Finally we propose a series of policies and advices such as strengthening the control capacity of state-owned assets, strictly carrying out environmental regulation policies, improving ownership and capital structure, and providing capital market and green financing policies etc.