Bridging the gap between state–business interactions and air pollution: The role of environment, social responsibility, and corporate governance performance
研究中国上市公司政商互动如何通过影响ESG表现加剧空气污染，发现政商合谋会阻碍ESG履行从而增加污染，而清洁的政商互动能改善这一关系。
Abstract Compared with the impact of listed corporates' environment, social responsibility, and corporate governance (ESG) on financing and market value, considerably less attention is paid to the role of ESG performance in improving environmental quality in China. However, exploring the environmental motivation of listed corporates' ESG engagement is vital for shareholder protection and corporate strategic development under state–business interactions. Thus, we study the relationship between state–business interactions and air pollution from the perspective of ESG using the dataset of Chinese listed corporates. The results demonstrate that the state–business collusion interactions increase air pollution by hindering the fulfillment of ESG. Meanwhile, this impact of heavy pollution corporates is higher than that of industrial corporates. However, the deleterious relationship might be largely improved when state–business interactions are “clean.” Finally, we observe that ESG mediates the relationship between state–business interactions and pollutants.