Effects of Mandatory Carbon Reporting on Greenwashing
研究了英国强制性碳报告法规如何减少企业在社会责任报告中夸大环保表现的行为，发现该法规不仅抑制了碳相关漂绿，还通过声誉风险和治理资源溢出减少了其他环境披露中的漂绿。
ABSTRACT We study the effects of mandatory environmental reporting on greenwashing. Our setting is a regulation in the United Kingdom requiring firms to report carbon emissions, or mandatory carbon reporting (MCR). Measuring greenwashing as the discrepancy between companies’ external carbon-related discussions in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports and their underlying carbon performance, we find MCR leads to a decline in three types of greenwashing: excessive length, over-optimism, and vague commitments, relative to performance. MCR also curtails greenwashing in other (noncarbon) environmental disclosures, suggesting a spillover from MCR to firms’ broader environmental reporting. Drivers are shown to include higher expected reputational and regulatory risks for noncarbon issues after MCR, and a governance spillover, where the governance resources allocated to MCR also benefit noncarbon reporting. Data Availability: Data are publicly available from sources indicated in the text. JEL Classifications: M41; Q56; G38; Q54.