New media environment, environmental information disclosure and firm valuation: Evidence from high-polluting enterprises in China

Abstract With firms gradually becoming the subject for energy consumption and environment pollution, it is pivotal that they disclose corporate environmental information for social supervision and fulfillment of social responsibility. Thus, it has been a hot topic as to how to improve the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure (EID). Drawing on the data of listed companies in the high-polluting industries between 2014 and 2017 in China, this paper conducts an empirical study on three questions with an in-depth investigation: (1) does the new media environment help in improving corporate EID quality; (2) whether this relationship is influenced by the property ownership of the corporate and local economic pressure; (3) what is the economic consequence of corporate EID. Our findings indicate that new media environment has a significantly positive effect on corporate EID quality, especially to state-owned enterprises. And firms with higher environmental disclosure quality enjoy better firm valuation. These findings help identify new driving factors of corporate EID and confirm that new media environment has performed a supplementary role in regulating corporate environmental behaviors, which can help develop green finance and promote ecological civilization.