Limiting environmental reporting flexibility: investor judgment based on the EU taxonomy
通过实验研究，考察传统环境信息披露和基于欧盟分类法的标准化指标对专业投资者和私人投资者投资判断的不同影响，发现专业投资者对限制报告灵活性的标准化信息反应负面，而私人投资者则反应正面。
Abstract This experimental research investigates the effect of different types of environmental information on investor judgment. By examining three experimental cases varying the level of environmental disclosure, we evaluate the investment judgments of professional (Study 1) and private German investors (Study 2). Primarily, we investigate whether traditional, commonly disclosed environmental information affects investor judgments. Furthermore, we explore the effects of linking non-financial reporting elements to quantitative financial measures through the EU taxonomy by adding taxonomy indicators. Specifically, we operationalized the case where companies fall into a category of poor environmental performance by taxonomy classification. We find that only traditional environmental disclosure in combination with standardized taxonomy-aligned information (below average), influences the investment judgment. However, professional investors exhibit a significantly negative response, while private investors show a significantly positive reaction when constraining reporting flexibility through the inclusion of standardized taxonomy measures with poor performance. Consequently, we conclude that the connection between non-financial reporting elements and quantitative standardized financial measures enhances transparency for professional investors. Private investors, on the other hand, reward additional taxonomy-aligned environmental information irrespective of its content. This implies that environmental information generally conveys positive signals to private investors, but uncertainty in investment judgment can be assumed.